The Golson Newsletter The University of Montevallo English Program
In This Issue: President Stewart, English Professor . . . 2 Internship Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Master of Arts Program . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Montevallo Literary Festival 2011. . . . 6 Alumni Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 What are you Reading? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Words for Aspiring Creative Writers . . . 8 What Have You Been Writing? English Faculty Publications . . . . . . . . 9 Notes from Emeriti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Student Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Dr. Eva Golson by Sandra Lott, English professor emerita Dr. Eva Golson was for many years a stalwart of the English Department. She was a remarkable scholar, the first woman to earn a PhD in English from the University of Chicago. Her knowledge was encyclopedic, even to the point of reciting long passages from Chaucer, Shakespeare, or Jane Austen from memory. She took a personal interest in all of our students, even after they graduated, and she began sending out a newsletter about students, faculty members, and their families.
In addition to departmental news, Dr. Golson also faithfully reported the goings on at the college, including information on traditions such as College Night, the Dancy Lectures, and productions by the Music and Theatre Departments. She also duly noted the spring crocuses, early daffodils, and blooming trees on the campus. As noted in the departmental history, published in 1996, “For more than twenty years, [Eva Golson] shared her delightful, sometimes scintillating views of the campus— its politics, its habitat, and its inhabitants— with alumni in her annual springtime missive.
Though often smeared with purple mimeograph fluid and cluttered with last-minute [handwritten] additions, her comments gave a unique perspective on ourselves and our institution.” In the early years, all of this was done on a manual typewriter, using green mimeograph stencils and later purple ditto copies. Thus, both composing and duplicating the newsletter were labors of love. After she retired, the Department named the newsletter The Golson Newsletter, and various faculty members took responsibility for assembling the news.
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