Ch. 3 from Klingle’s Emerald City

Ch. 6 from Merchant’s American Environmental History

Introduction from O’Brien’s Firsting and Lasting

Thrush’s “City of the Changers”

Women Writers and the Settlement of the Pacific Northwest: The Cultural Legacy of Emily Inez Denny’s Blazing the Way, Or True Stories, Songs, and Sketches of Puget Sound and Other Pioneers (1909)

Join other colleagues around the region for a daylong dialog about the legacy of Emily Inez Denny’s written account of early Puget Sound-area pioneers. In a similar fashion to other narratives of settlement, Denny’s book demonstrates the incredible cultural influence of certain non-fiction narratives. Denny utilizes themes found within many frontier narratives (threat of Indian attack, virgin lands, exaggeration of pioneer activities, etc.), and these themes helped to pave the way for the development of the region. The group will focus on various approaches to the study of Emily Inez Denny’s Blazing the Way and examine secondary sources that offer supplementary information about early Seattle history and the literary and cultural significance of Denny’s book.

In addition to engaging conversation about scholarly and pedagogical approaches to Blazing the Way, the group will also visit the Museum of History and Industry to examine the visual representations of Seattle’s early history.  The museum visit will take place in the morning from 10-11:30, and the cost will be minimal ($8).  If we have enough confirmed participants, we can also request a group discount.

For the fall meeting, the group will meet at Seattle University, located on Capitol Hill and near downtown Seattle.   Please RSVP to Christina Roberts (robertch@seattleu.edu) by Oct. 29^th.

Please RSVP by Friday, October 29^th

Suggested Primary Readings

Denny, Emily Inez. Blazing the way, or True Stories, Songs and Sketches of Puget Sound and Other Pioneers.  Chapters 3, 4, and 7. (available online as Google book and as .pdf document)

Klingle, Matthew.  Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle. Chapter 3, “The Imagination and Creative Energy of the Engineer: Harnessing Nature’s Forces to Urban Progress.” (excerpt available as .pdf. document)

Thrush, Coll.  Native Seattle. Chapter 2, “Terra Miscognita.” (excerpt available as .pdf. document)

Suggested Secondary Readings

Carlson, Lucile. “Duwamish River: Its Place in the Seattle Industrial Plan.” Economic Geography. 26.2 (April 1950): 144-154.  (available through JSTOR)

Merchant, Carolyn.  American Environmental History. Chapter Six, “Urban Environments, 1850-1960.” (excerpt available as .pdf. document)

O’Brien Jean.  Firsting and Lasting: Writing Native Americans Out of Existence in New England. Introduction, “Indians Can Never Be Modern.” (excerpt available as .pdf document)

Thrush, Coll.  “City of the Changers: Indigenous People and the Transformation of Seattle’s Watersheds.” Pacific Historical Review. 75.1 (Feb. 2006): 89-117. (available through JSTOR)

PDFs of the readings and additional information available at http://ssawwnw.wordpress.com/

Directions to Seattle University

http://www.seattleu.edu/campus_community/visit_campus/directions_area_maps/driving_to_main_campus/

Visitor parking is available at the 12th Ave & E. Marion parking lot.

Campus map

http://www.seattleu.edu/campus_community/visit_campus/campus_maps/main_campus_map/

Airport and Hotel

The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is the main airport for the greater Seattle area.  There are numerous transportation options to get from the airport to downtown Seattle, and there are many wonderful attractions that change frequently.  Check out additional information at http://www.visitseattle.org/, where you can also find hotel discounts and other offers.  The Silver Cloud Hotel (http://www.silvercloud.com/broadway.php) is the closest to Seattle University, and the website offer a small discount if booked online in advance.

Agenda

9-9:30am                     Continental breakfast and introductions

Meet on 5^th floor of Casey building

http://www.seattleu.edu/campus_community/visit_campus/campus_maps/main_campus_map/

9:30-11:30am              Shuttle Van. Visit MOHAI and other relevant Seattle-area landmarks

11:30-12:30                 Lunch at Seattle University

12:30-4pm                   Afternoon sessions

• Discuss readings

o       Emily Inez Denny and pioneering families

o       Klingle’s environmental history of Seattle

o       Future of (bioregional) scholarly discourse?

• Break w/beverages and light dessert
• Share pedagogical strategies

o       Academic service learning

o       Community-based research

o       Other authors to include – goal will be to compile research/teaching bibliography that can be mailed to regional group.

• Business

o       Spring meeting logistics

5pm                             Dinner at local restaurant

Dear Colleagues,

You are cordially invited to be a discussant and participant in the Spring 2010 meeting of the American Women Writers Research Group for the Northwest Region.  The meeting will take place on Saturday, April 24 from 11am-5:30pm in the Bundy Reading Room, ground floor of Avery Hall, on the Washington State University Campus in Pullman, Washington.

The topic of the reading list for our discussion is “Anthologies and Critical Editions.” Christina Roberts (Seattle University) and Michelle Fankhauser (Washington State University) have compiled the list.  We will be discussing selections from texts by Mourning Dove and Julia Ward Howe.  See the blog entry below for the reading list and links to PDFs of the readings.  At the April 24 meeting, we will discuss the scholarly significance of the texts on our reading list, their place in the history of women writers, and ideas about teaching them.

The Washington State University Department of English and the Society for the Study of American Women Writers have generously offered to sponsor this meeting.  WSU English is providing our meeting room, and WSU English and SSAWW will be funding lunch and afternoon refreshments for our day of discussion.

Please send an RSVP email by April 10 (mfankhauser@wsu.edu) to let us know if you plan to attend, and if you can make the dinner after the meeting, as we need to inform the caterers and restaurant of our numbers.  We look forward to seeing you at the Pullman Campus for what we hope will be a useful and engaging discussion!

Sincerely,

Michelle Fankhauser (mfankhauser@wsu.edu), Donna Campbell (campbelld@wsu.edu), and Amber Lapiana (amber_lapiana@wsu.edu)

Schedule:

11-12pm: visit to WSU’s Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC) (http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/friends/MASC-Gifts.html) – Curator Trevor Bond has graciously agreed to meet with us and let us view the collected papers of Mourning Dove.  The MASC is on the ground floor of the Holland-Terrell Library.

12-1pm:  Lunch–Participants will gather in the Bundy Reading Room for lunch and conversation

1-2pm: Introductions and Conversation with Gary Williams – Gary Williams, Professor and Department Chair of English at the University of Idaho, will join us to discuss his discovery and subsequent publication of Julia Ward Howe’s The Hermaphrodite and its current inclusion in the Heath Anthology.  Professor Williams will make his comments and then take questions from the group.

2-3pm:  Discussion

3-3:30pm:  Coffee and dessert break

3:30-5:30pm:  Discussion and Business

6-8pm:  Dinner at The Black Cypress (215 E Main Street, Pullman)

The meeting starts a bit late in the day to accommodate participants who are coming from some distance.

Dinner:

We hope you can join us for dinner after the meeting at the Black Cypress in Pullman.  When you email to RSVP to the meeting, please let us know whether you plan to attend dinner or not.  The restaurant has a blog that is slightly out of date but still gives you an idea of the menu: http://www.theblackcypress.com/.

Accommodations in Pullman:

The Pullman Chamber of Commerce website, which lists all the hotels in Pullman: http://www.pullmanchamber.com/visit-pullman/where-to-stay/

Travel to Pullman:

Tacoma is served by Spokane airport (http://www.spokaneairports.net/), which has car rentals and shuttle/taxi service to Pullman.

Information about traveling to the Washington State University Campus can be found at

http://visitor.wsu.edu/.

Driving directions can be found here (we’re meeting on the WSU campus in the Bundy Reading Room, Avery Hall):   http://www.campusmap.wsu.edu/directions/seattle.html

WSU campus map:  http://www.campusmap.wsu.edu/

WSU web site:  http://www.wsu.edu/

WSU Campus Parking (the easiest and lest expensive option is to park in the garage under the Holland-Terrell Library – this is where the MASC is and it is a short walk to Avery Hall from there): http://www.campusmap.wsu.edu/pdfs/Parking-Map-Low-Res.pdf

And see the blog entry below for even more information on Pullman.

If you need any additional information about the meeting or your travel, you can contact:

Michelle Fankhauser (mfankhauser@wsu.edu), Donna Campbell (campbelld@wsu.edu), or Amber Lapiana (amber_lapiana@wsu.edu)

Accomodations:
 
Quality Inn, Paradise Creek
 
Holiday Inn Express
 
Hilltop Inn
 
Cougar Land Motel
 
Transportation:
 
Pullman Transit
 
Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport , also has ground transportation information such as rental cars

Restaurants, Coffeeshops, Etc.
 
Daily Grind
 
Cafe Moro
 
Swilly’s Restaurant
 
Old Post Office Wine Cellar and Gallery

I have posted below a link to the reading list for the meeting, compiled by Michelle Fankhauser (WSU) and Christina Roberts (Seattle U).  I have also included links to pdfs of five short reading selections we will discuss together.

The hosts of our WSU meeting will be sending the formal invitation through the email list soon.

Looking forward to seeing you in April,

Lydia Fisher

Spring 2010 Reading List

Howe Excerpts, Heath Anthology of American Literature, 6th ed.

Mourning Dove Excerpts, Heath Anthology of American Literature, 6th ed.

Graff and DeLio Essay

Kilcup Essay

Excerpts, Mourning Dove’s Cogewea

Please take some time *this week* to send Michelle Fankhauser (misha@turbonet.com) and Christina Roberts (robertch@seattleu.edu) your reading list suggestions for the spring meeting of the NW Region American Women Writers Research Group, which will be held on Saturday, April 24 in Pullman, WA, hosted by Washington State University. (The hosts have switched the location from Spokane to Pullman so that we can take a tour of the rare books and manuscripts collection on the Pullman campus.)

The topic for our discussion in April will be:

Anthologies and Critical Editions: What texts are central to our understanding of American women’s writing, and in what form are they available?

Michelle and Christina are compiling the reading list for the meeting, and they would like you to email them both your suggestions for short texts or excerpts that are especially significant in helping to define your understanding of American Women Writers. What works by American women should be included in anthologies or available in critical editions (such as the Norton series)?

Send a few suggestions for texts that you would like to discuss with the group because they are not often anthologized or available in critical editions, and should be, or because you are especially interested in looking at the way they have been published/anthologized in the past. The idea is to discuss teaching and research concerns of a few central texts, while we have a broader discussion about the general issue of anthologizing and publishing American women writers’ works.

Please send your suggestions as soon as you can — Christina and Michelle are working on the list right now.

Stay tuned for a formal invitation and the reading list for that April 24 meeting.

Best wishes,

Lydia

Lydia Fisher

Department of English

University of Puget Sound

1500 N. Warner St. #1045

Tacoma, WA 98416-1045