Keyword: English

Alumnus explores the relationship between art and commerce in daring new novel

In 2017, André Forget was asked by friend and collaborator Joel Peters (CMU, 2011) to write a short story about a fictitious underwater organ. The only rule was to keep the story around 2,000 words. Forget ended up writing a 10,000-word academic dissertation about the mythical instrument, which he named the hydroöganon. Complete with invented scholars debating each other's theses and extensive details as to the engineering of the instrument, the story, originally titled The Lower Registers, served as the impetus for writing his debut novel In the City of Pigs, published by Dundurn Press in the summer of 2022.

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On Speaking Truth to Power: reflections from an English student working in Communications

CMU is introducing a new combined Major in English and Communications & Media. Formalizing the combination is a progressive move, but the pairing itself is nothing new.

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CMU announces new combined major in Communications & Media and English

Employers today are looking for people with strong communication skills. Teamwork requires people who can think across mediums and skill sets, who write well and present well, combining great ideas and great writing with graphic and other media skills.

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Five fitting films for our time: quarantine viewing ideas

by Sue Sorensen

During this time of sheltering in place and homebound leisure activities, many of us are watching more films than usual. It's unfortunate that Netflix has such a stranglehold on today's film audience. A serious shortcoming is the almost complete absence of good movies more than a few years old. Netflix offers not a single film starring Katharine Hepburn or James Stewart; neither are there any films directed by Jane Campion or Billy Wilder.

None of my recommendations, below, are on that ubiquitous platform, but all can be inexpensively rented for a day on Google Play Movies. (If I can figure it out, anyone can.) One of these films (the wonderful Paterson) can be viewed at no cost on Kanopy, the excellent streaming service available with a Winnipeg Public Library card. (Other libraries may also subscribe to Kanopy.)

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In God’s Country: Alumna finds joy and purpose teaching in Canada’s far north

Gjoa Haven is situated on William Island, Nunavut, a little over 2,000 kilometres north of Winnipeg. As the crow flies, it's about as far from here to Vancouver. But the Mercator effect is truer to life in Canada than ninth-grade social studies would have us believe: in significance if not in substance, distances expand toward the Pole. While the realities of life up north can be harsh, for Katrina Brooks, a 2015 alumna of CMU's Bachelor of Arts in English now teaching at Gjoa Haven's Qiqirtaq Ilihakvik High School, this expansion of space and consciousness is a taste of what it feels like to be in God's country.

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Graduation: The Tassel was Worth the Hassle

I came across this catchphrase a few weeks ago as I was looking on Pinterest for graduation party ideas. Putting aside the fact that I was on Pinterest instead of writing my final paper, I paused my incessant scrolling of picture-perfect DIY ideas to consider whether or not this was true in my life.

Clicking this link will take you way from media.cmu.ca.

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