2014 James H. Ottaway Visiting Professor of Journalism Sonia Shah will be introduced to the campus community on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 6 p.m. in the Honors Center in College Hall. President Christian will interview Shah about her life and journalism career. The event is free and open to the public.

Shah is an investigative journalist who covers science, human rights, and international politics. She is the author of several critically acclaimed and prize-winning books, including The Body Hunters: Testing New Drugs on the World’s Poorest Patients (New Press, 2006) and Crude: The Story of Oil (Seven Stories Press, 2004). Her latest book, The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years (Sarah Crichton Books/ Farrar, Straus & Giroux, July 2010), is based on five years of original reportage in Cameroon, Malawi, Panama, and elsewhere. Shah also served as the editor of the anthology Dragon Ladies: Asian American Feminists Breathe Fire (South End Press, 1997).

A former writing fellow of the Nation Institute and the Puffin Foundation, Shah is a frequent keynote speaker, and has lectured at universities and colleges across the country. Her writings on science, global health, and politics have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Scientific American, and Foreign Affairs among other publications. Her work has been supported by The Nation Investigative Fund and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.

Shah is teaching a journalism seminar this semester called “Science, Environment, and Disease: New Approaches to Science Journalism.”

If you have questions about Tuesday’s event, please email Lisa Phillips at phillipl@newpaltz.edu

About the Professorship

The James H. Ottaway Sr. Visiting Professorship, SUNY New Paltz’s only endowed professorship, is named for the founder of Ottaway Newspapers Inc., now the Dow Jones Local Media Group, which operates print and online community media franchises in seven states. The flagship newspaper of the chain is the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y. For more information, visit http://www.newpaltz.edu/ottaway/ .

By Despina Williams Parker
parkerd@newpaltz.edu

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences junior Kelly Seiz has published a creative nonfiction piece in Sassafras Literary Magazine.

The story, entitled, “Pluck,” is a firsthand account of life as a trichotillomaniac, an obscure mental disorder similar to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in which those afflicted involuntary pull out their hair either unconsciously or deliberately under times of stress.  The following is an excerpt:

“The divorce is finalized and her mother wins primary custody. Kelly turns ten and they move off of her beloved mountain and down into the village. Soon after, the edges of Kelly’s eyelids grow bare. By now, she’s strategized that if she only plucks gradually, the main body of lashes will be enough to keep her secret hidden.

Middle school proves horrendous with her pudgy body and creepy eyes. The other children are starting to become opinionated, but remain unstructured enough to ask inappropriate questions and draw insensitive conclusions.

“Why do you only have some eyelashes?” Kelsey asks in the bathroom, her gaggle of mini-bitches eagerly waiting a response.

“I’ve always been like this,” Kelly responds flatly.

“But in elementary school you had eyelashes,” she asks undeterred. Their curiosity radiates like heat. Kelly’s cheeks grow hot.

The story published in Sassafras is a condensed version of Seiz’s much longer story.

Seiz, a Journalism major, was published three times last semester.  The other two pieces were published in the Legislative Gazette as collaborative pieces for James Gormley’s Public Affairs Reporting class.

“Fall 2013 was such a great semester for me.  I had so many amazing opportunities,” Seiz said.

To read more of “Pluck,” visit http://sassafrasmag.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/kelly-seiz-pluck/.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Professor Howard Good’s meditations on the literary genre known as flash fiction appeared in author Michael Alexander Chaney’s web blog, michaelalexanderchaney.com.

Good described his own work in the genre as “prose poems,” that are unconstrained by conventional definitions of character or plot.

Good considers his work, “My Heart Draws a Rough Map,” published by Blue Hour Press in 2009, an example of an extended prose poem.  The book is told in a series of 19 related poems.

“I realized for perhaps the first time that I had found a form that was particularly congenial to my outlook and talents,” Good wrote.

While noting the difficulty of offering advice to young writers, Good urged writers to be willing to take risks.

“They shouldn’t be afraid to experiment — and fail. Trial and error can be a pretty good teacher. Refining my writing has proved to be a never-ending process. It’s searching in the dark for a black hat that isn’t there,” he wrote.

Good also urged young writers to submit their work for publication, the sooner the better. The submission process, Good noted, “toughens [writers] up for the inevitable bumps and bruises of a writing life.”

Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of 12 poetry chapbooks. He has been nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize and five times for the Best of the Net anthology. His first full-length book of poetry, Lovesick, was released in 2009 by Press Americana.

To read Good’s complete article, visit http://michaelalexanderchaney.com/2013/12/18/your-first-flash-publication-8-amazing-writers-respond-with-advice-for-your-first/.