A historic building on the Plymouth State University campus was saved from serious damage after an apparent lightning strike started a fire on Oct. 20.
A barn adjoining Holmes House was hit just before 5 p.m. when a violent electrical storm moved through the region. Read More
Richard E. Collins, a dear friend and long-time benefactor of Plymouth State University, died peacefully at home on Saturday, Dec. 2 after a brief illness. Read More
Every Thursday evening, dozens of Plymouth area citizens are welcomed into the community room of the Congregational Church on Main Street, and are given a free, warm meal. The Meals for Many program depends on volunteers, and Plymouth State University is well represented, with members of sports teams and student organizations helping out on a regular basis. Read More
Faculty Member’s Debut Novel Receives National Acclaim
Plymouth State University faculty member Katherine Min is making her mark in literary circles. The Oct. 23 issue of the New Yorker magazine reviewed Min’s novel Secondhand World, which details the coming-of-age of a Korean immigrant girl.
“This disquieting debut novel begins likes a murder mystery … The story that follows, however, is less an investigation than an exorcism,” read the New Yorker review. “The writing is exquisite, and exacting.”
Min is excited to garner positive comments for Secondhand World. “Writing a novel requires a lot of time working alone in a room, and you don’t know if anyone is going to read what you’ve written,” she said. “So to have people reading the book, talking about my characters as though they were real people, is very gratifying. I don’t think it gets much better than that for a writer.”
Min’s short stories have appeared in numerous publications, including TriQuarterly, Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review and Prairie Schooner, and have been widely anthologized, most recently in The Pushcart Book of Stories: The Best Short Stories from a Quarter-Century of The Pushcart Prize.
Min was awarded N.H. Arts Council fellowships in 2004 and 1995, and in 1992 received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She has received six fellowships to the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, N.H.; a residency at Ledig House, in Ghent, N.Y.; a Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fellowship at the Millay Colony, in Austerlitz, N.Y., and has been named a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee (Tenn.) Writers Conference. In addition to teaching at PSU, Min also teaches at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival.—Bruce Lyndes
Drive Time
Driving through My Day Gig (Sandstorm Records, 2006) is the latest recording from Rik Pfenninger, Plymouth State University professor of music and director of jazz studies and music technology. Pfenninger plays woodwinds on this collection of smooth jazz and mellow Latin tunes. Also appearing on the CD are PSU faculty members Tom Robinson (piano) and Don Williams (bass), as well as Mike Davison (trumpet), Craig Jaster (piano), and Jon Barnes (bass).
Jazz Improv magazine says Pfenninger’s music conveys “… tranquility, friendship, a sense of wonder,” while Jam Music magazine has noted: “Pfenninger can play a familiar melody in a beautifully simple way and then turn around and rip through an elaborate improvisation. This is a completely enjoyable experience.”—Marcia L. Santore
English Professor Named New Hampshire Artist Fellow
Author Joseph Monninger, associate professor of English at Plymouth State University, has received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the state of New Hampshire. Fellowships are awarded annually for artistic excellence and professional commitment, as judged by peers in each artist’s field.
Monninger was one of six fellows chosen from 90 applicants. He will receive $5,000 as a member of the 2007 class of Artist Fellows.
“The award indicates Professor Monninger’s high stature in his field and is a fine recognition of his substantial accomplishments,” said PSU President Sara Jayne Steen.
“It’s especially sweet to receive this award in a state I love,” said Monninger. “I’m grateful to the people of New Hampshire.”
Monninger started writing during a three-year stint in the Peace Corps in Africa after graduating from Temple University. He then worked as a freelance writer, selling his stories and non-fiction pieces to major magazines such as Sports Illustrated, Glamour, Readers Digest, American Heritage, McCalls, RedBook, and Ellery Queen. His nine novels have been published by Athenaeum, Scribner’s, Simon and Schuster, Thorndike Press, Steerforth, D.I. Fine, and Random House.
Monninger has recently turned toward creative nonfiction. Two of his memoirs have been widely praised by reviewers: Home Waters: Fishing with an Old Friend (Broadway Books, 1999) and Barn in New England: Making a Home on Three Acres (Chronicle Books, 2001). His most recent book is Two Ton: One Night, One Fight—Tony Galento v. Joe Louis (Steerforth Press, 2006).
Monninger’s previous awards include two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and a Booksense Award for Home Waters. He has worked for many years with the New Hampshire Writers Project and the New Hampshire Humanities Council, and lectures frequently. —Bruce Lyndes
Inspiration from the Past
By Alice Staples
When President Sara Jayne Steen was moving into her office in July 2006, she wasn’t expecting to find an institutional treasure. But she did.
In the back of a cabinet, Steen came across a well-worn notebook with the name Carrie E. Abbott on the cover. The notebook contains many pages of careful, delicate script, a student’s notes from her classes at Plymouth Normal School, 1885–1888. Read More
A Young Composer Makes a Big Noise
by Elizabeth Cheney
Melanie Donahue and professor of music Jonathan Santore
Melanie Donahue, a senior music education major in Plymouth State University’s Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance, has had Eire, her original composition for band, accepted for publication by Alfred Publishing Company, one of the world’s largest publishers of written music. This feat is almost unheard of for an undergraduate, and Eire is reported to be the only piece by a female composer in the current Alfred band catalog. Publication is expected in June 2007. Read More
Tales Told by the Dead
by David R. Starbuck
A PSU anthropologist introduces his students to the field of forensic anthropology.
Bones, Bodies and Disease” is an overview course covering the exciting field of forensic anthropology. This relatively new field uses the human skeleton to help in legal and medical investigations, and complements forensic pathology, which studies changes in soft tissues caused by disease or injury; forensic entomology, which uses insects (especially blowflies) to aid in legal investigations; and forensic psychiatry, which applies psychiatric knowledge to legal problems (especially investigations of serial killers, stalkers, cannibals and others). Read More
He Will Never Forget
by Marcia L. Santore
He was 12 years old when the soldiers came.
Kingsley Kabari is a member of the Ogoni people, from the oil-rich delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, Africa. After over four decades of drilling by Shell and other international oil companies, leaking oil from old equipment has poisoned Ogoniland. Read More
Meet the New Panthers on the Ice
by Kent Cherrington
Kelly Williams remembers the early days. Williams, a senior physical science education major, recalls her first year at Plymouth State University, when she helped organize a meeting for women who wanted to play ice hockey. Today Williams is the senior captain of the Panther varsity women’s ice hockey team for its first official season: 2006–2007. Read More
PSU's Casey Bisson received a Mellon Award for his ground-breaking software application known as WPopac, created to bridge the digital divide between libraries and the Internet.
