ENGLISH SYMPOSIUM 2025

“Exemplary Student Work”

(scan or tap to take survey after attending any Symposium event)

THURSDAY, MARCH 6

Registration and Check-in (9:00-9:30am)

Presenters can come pick up name badges and swag bags at the registration table next to the Education in Zion auditorium (at the bottom of the spiral staircase in the JFSB).

Session A (9:30-10:45am) 

Panel A1: Happy 250th Birthday, Jane Austen! (B150 JFSB)

If you heart all things Austen, this roundtable is for you. Seven students will speak briefly about their Austen research and writing, and then they’ll turn the bulk of the time over to a discussion of some of the most pressing scholarly Austen questions, things like “Which Darcy is the best Darcy?” Come join the conversation.

Room: B150 JFSB
Chair: Madison Maloney

• • Hollynd Bowler, “Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game: Contrasting Fanny Price and Anne Elliot by their Success in Using Austen’s Game Theory”
  • Gillian Carter, “Absent Mothers and their Effects on the Heroines’ Self-Actualization in Jane Austen’s Final Three Novels”
  • Ella Memmott, “Wentworth, Catharsis, and the True Heroism of Emotional Openness”
  • Julia Koncurat, “Playing Man: Domination and Literary Queerness in Emma“
  • Esther Lay, “‘Call it gossip if you will’: Gossip as Community Building in Persuasion“
  • Avery G. Lloyd, “Dear Future Husband: Jane Austen’s Role in Shaping the Modern Female Gaze Through Film Adaptations and Influenced Works”
  • Hannah Swenson, “Persuasions and Proposals: Female Agency in Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion“

Panel A2: (Creative Writing) Reading Across the Genres: What Writers Learn by Reading Outside their Genre (9:30-10:45, B105 JFSB)

Love a particular genre? Write primarily in this genre? Come join us for a conversation about what writers can learn by reading outside of the genres in which they typically write.

Room: B105 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Michael Lavers

• • Christie Gardiner
  • Noah Hickman
  • Kate Romney
  • Amelia Scott

Panel A3: Poetics of Faith (9:30-10:45, 4186 JFSB)

What if learning to understand poetry could also attune us more deeply to the nuances of spiritual experience? Students in this session will share what they learned in ENGL 357R, in which they studied the work of some extraordinary contemporary Christian poets, all of whom address the wide range of experiences we associate with spiritual life.

Room: 4186 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Matthew Wickman

• • Madeline Davis, “Postures of Reverence: Everyday Gestures in Poetry and Practice”
  • Hyrum Johnson, “Nothing Save Imprint of You: Mother Teresa and the Absence of Christ”
  • Kaden Nelson, “The Faith Crisis as Death: Grief in Gerard Manley Hopkins’s ‘Terrible Sonnets’”
  • Starly Pratt, “Doubt as Devotion: A Look at Anya Silver’s ‘Saint Agnostica’”
  • Henry Purser, “A Kenotic Apophasis in ‘His Emblem Over Me’”

Panel A4: Our Goodreads: Books You Shouldn’t Miss (9:30-10:45, B101 JFSB)

Looking for your next read? Perhaps something fun to binge during Spring Break (day)? Come hear the reading recommendations of students and faculty.

Room: B101 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Brice Peterson

• • Prof. Trent Hickman
  • Prof. Brice Peterson
  • Lucy Draper
  • Bekah Gull
  • Sydney Gant

Panel A5: Stump the Professor (9:30-10:45, B135 JFSB)

Ever wonder just how much English professors DON’T know? Wonder no more. We’ve collected old exam questions from across the department and roped some of our best and brightest into participating in a contest of knowledge. But we need you, too. Audience members will be encouraged to supply questions of their own once we run out, and anything you learned while at BYU–anything, not just Englishy stuff–is fair game. If the students manage to stump the professors, you win. If the professors rack up more points than the students, you lose. Prizes will, obviously, need to be awarded.

Room: B135 JFSB
Chair: Ryann Wilks

• • Team A Captain: Prof. John Talbot
  • Team B Captain: Prof. Paul Westover
  • Team C Captain: Prof. Juliana Chapman

     

Session B (11:00-12:15pm)

Panel B1: Folklore Storytelling Swap (B099 JFSB)

Join us for a storytelling swap guided by English Department professors and folklorists Christopher Blythe, Eric Eliason, and Jill Rudy. By sharing prompts about mission stories, BYU courtship culture, and hometown hauntings, we’ll invite students’ story sharing in spontaneous panels. We might even do some analysis along the way.

Room:  B099 JFSB

• • Prof. Jill Rudy
  • Prof. Eric Eliason
  • Prof. Chris Blythe 

Panel B2: Beatlemania! (11:00-12:15, B103 JFSB)

The music of the Beatles provided a soundtrack to the social changes of the 1960s, helping to define the spirit of that decade and leaving an enduring legacy on pop culture. Taking a break from literature to indulge in media studies, this panel explores their legacy.

Room: B103 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Trent Hickman

• • Toni Aguiar, “Idealized, Battered, and Sexualized: Women’s Objectification in The Beatles’ Lyrics”
  • Lily Jensen, “Selfhood in Joan Didion’s The White Album“
  • Annika Peacock, “Decontextualization and Recontextualization: How (and Why) the ‘Jesus Controversy’ Became so Out-of-Hand”

Panel B3: (Creative Writing) Play on Writing: Generative Language Games–Not Your Grandma’s Workshop! (11:00-12:15, B140 JFSB) 

Come play some literary games, eat some literature-inspired snacks, and inject your writing with new ideas and fresh passion at this activity-based, interactive panel. 

Room: B140 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Joey Franklin

• • Avery Dall-Hilton
  • Maya Hoeft
  • Noah Hickman

Panel B4: Teaching in Tongues: A Multilingual Approach to ELA in Secondary Education (11:00-12:15, B037 JFSB)

Although English Teaching inherently privileges the English language, these presentations explore how a multilingual approach can enhance the study of English Language Arts. Even if you don’t speak a second language, understanding the language tools that students bring to their English classes and how you can use them will make you a more effective teacher, listener, and learner.

Room: B037 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Amber Jensen

• • Rachel Alger, “No es una Falta: An Introduction to Translanguaging in the ELA Classroom”
  • Dylan Stuflick, “Young Adult Identity Through English-Spanish Codeswitching”
  • Lauren Proctor, “The Role of Translated International Young Adult Literature in Creating Global Citizens”
  • Anna Moon, “Incorporating Diverse Dialects in Writing Instruction”

Panel B5: Beyond Gilead: Essays on Marilynne Robinson (11:00-12:15, B150 JFSB)

This panel will focus on the fiction of one of America’s best (and best-loved) living writers, Marilynne Robinson. Robinson, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning work is best known for engaging with questions about the role of faith in society, offers us the opportunity to consider the biggest questions about life as well as the tiny experiences that endow each moment with illumination.

Room: B150 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Makayla Steiner

• • Hailey Russell, “‘That Great, Sweet Nowhere’: Iowan Pastoralism in Marilynne Robinson’s Lila“
  • Ellie Dana, “’Old Women Will Make Songs Out of All These Sorrows’: Unlearning Silence in Housekeeping Through the Law of Ascension”
  • Britney Wells, “‘The Little Stone that Rambles in the Road Alone’: Emily Dickinson and Ruth Stone in Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping“
  • Joseph Farnsworth, “Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping and the American Frontier”

English + Experiences: English in Action (12:30-1:45, Education in Zion Theater, B192 JFSB)

Room: B192 JFSB (EIZ)
Chairs: Prof. Trina Harding, Prof. Frank Christianson

• • Ellie Cameron
  • Breann Eardley
  • Caroline McDonald
  • Madeline Miles
  • Elizabeth Petersen
  • Henry Purser
  • Kayley Smoot 

Session C (2:00-3:15pm)

Panel C1: Full Body Chills: Feeling, Fear, and Horror (B101 JFSB)

What makes us fear? Is it mental? Physical? Both? Neither? This panel will challenge our notions of horror, dread, and fellow-feeling in extremis. [Mild content warning: this panel will discuss texts that depict murder, execution, and self-harm.]

Room: B101 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Ed Cutler

• • Emma Ghiz, “’With Sudden Horror’: Shirley Jackson’s Portrayal of the Horrors of Womanhood”
  • Olivia Gagon, “‘Am I Always Supposed to Be Scared?’: The Allure of Fairytale Justice in Dimension 20’s D&D Actual Play Show Neverafter“
  • Wilson Hurdle, “Exploring the Labyrinth: History and Horror”
  • Toni Aguiar, “’Painful to Read’: Criminal Feeling in Thackeray’s ‘Going to See a Man Hanged’”

Panel C2: Teaching English or Teaching Students?: Individualizing Reading and Writing Instruction (2:00-3:15, B105)

When someone asks, “What will you teach?,” it’s easy to reply, “English.” But good teachers know that no matter what you specialize in, you’re always teaching people. Come hear students discuss different ways of making students–not subjects–the center of our teaching efforts in this roundtable.

Room: B105 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Rachel Knecht

• • Abigail Griffitts, “Humanizing Teacher Feedback”
  • Sophia Wonnacott, “Being a Model of Good Writing for Your Students”
  • Annika Peacock, “Good Ideas about Teaching Writing”
  • Alexis Tucker, “Teaching Beyond the Test”
  • Gillian Carter, “The Application of Occupational Therapy Interventions in Addressing Reading Comprehension in High School-Aged Individuals”
  • Elizabeth Gamez, “Fahrenheit 451 Unit Plan”

Panel C3: (Creative Writing) I’m a Creative Writer: Why Should I Read the Classics? (2:00-3:15, 4188 JFSB)

“I’m a writer, not an antiquarian.” “I’m writing sci-fi, or fantasy, or a postmodern novel, or creative non-fiction. The classics may be fine for the lit majors; what do they have to do with me?” If thoughts like these have ever crossed your mind, come join this discussion with CW students and faculty as they think about how reading classic literature has impacted their writing.

Room: 4188 JFSB
Chair: Rachel Terry

• • Prof. John Talbot
  • Mikayla Johnson
  • Amelia Scott
  • Gerrit van Dyk

Panel C4: Lord of the Reads: Literary Trivia Challenge (2:00-3:15, B103 JFSB)

Three student teams will compete to be crowned Lord of the Reads in this interactive trivia game panel. But the teams need you! Volunteers from the audience will be invited to come on down and flaunt their knowledge of totally useless literary trivia. Prizes will be awarded–to you?

Room: B103 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Nick Mason

• • Captain of Student Team A: TBA
  • Captain of Student Team B: TBA
  • Captain of Student Team C: TBA

Panel C5: Retelling the Past, Reimagining the Future: Old Stories in New Worlds (2:00-3:15, B112 JFSB)

We’re continually telling and retelling, taking old stories and making them new. In this panel, presenters place the old beside the new, pairing texts centuries old with everything from the X-Men to The Mandalorian, as they think about issues and tropes that continue to intrigue us.

Room: B112 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Aaron Eastley

• • Corina Flake, “’A Bundle of Rags’: The Justice of the American Dream in Cinderella and Tattered Tom“
  • Aubrey Charlesworth, “The Immortal Outlaw Hero: From ‘Jesse James’s Pledge’ to The Mandalorian”
  • Sophie Richards, “Esther Rogers and Jean Grey”
  • Madison Sacriste, “’We’re Here Too’: Women’s Humanity and Agency in Feminist Retellings of The Odyssey“

Session D (3:30-4:45pm)

Panel D1: BYU Student Journals: Getting Published, Getting Involved (B106 JFSB)

Want to get published in one of the department’s awesome student journals? Want to get English+ credit for working on the staff? Want to volunteer? Have no clue what a student journal is and just want to know more? Then here’s the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. Join the faculty and student editors of Inscape, Criterion, and Whirligig in this roundtable conversation with Q&A.

Room: B106 JFSB

• • Inscape: Prof. Cheri Earl, Kate Romney, Paige Fetzer
  • Criterion: Prof. Chris Blythe, Gabriella Welling, Brendan Murphy
  • Whirligig: Prof. Ann Dee Ellis, Mikayla Johnson, Natalie Tate

Panel D2: Beyond Boundaries: The Unfixed Self in Time, Place, and Memory (3:30-4:45, 4116 JFSB)

All of the papers in this panel grapple with the question of boundaries, literal and figurative, and the ways life moves in, around, and through them. In the fiction and poetry of skilled authors, time, place, memory, and self become not fixed and stable, but full of potential interconnection.

Room: 4116 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Brian Roberts

• • Gabbie Schwartz, “‘Everything that he sees’: Placing the Egotistical Wordsworth in the Yarrow Poems”
  • Zerin Biehn, “Paradise Gained: Beyond Biopolitics in Toni Morrison’s Paradise“
  • Tricia Cope, “‘Peace [that] could only be amazement, too’: Narrativizing Wonder and Strangeness in Marilynne Robinson’s Lila”

Panel D3: Story Slam (3:30-4:45, B101 JFSB)

Storytelling and storylistening are at the heart of the English major, which encompasses readers, writers, teachers, and folklorists. And sometimes telling–and listening–can be transformative. Learn how to craft a great story and then try it out in this interactive panel, which will give audience members the chance to participate in some story-making fun.

Room: B101 JFSB
Chairs: Prof. Jamin Rowan

• • Kennedy Kleinman
  • Emma Osguthorpe

Panel D4: Bearing Witness: Grief, Trauma, and Identity in Literature (3:30-4:45, B105 JFSB)

Readers are witnesses, in a sense, listeners who have the opportunity to practice empathy while hearing the stories of others’ happiness–and pain. This panel explores the latter and the ways that different people navigate the very worst moments of their lives. No trauma voyeurism here; just attempts to sit with the grief of others and extend fellow-feeling as we learn.

Room: B105 JFSB
Chairs: Prof. Ansalee Greenwood

• • Miriam Hiltunen, “An Analysis of Art Spiegelman’s Maus: Portraying Trauma Through the Comic Medium”
  • Alexis Johnston, “Transatlantic Trauma in Wieland and Frankenstein“
  • Emma Shobe, “Isolation, Assimilation, and the American Dream in Jhumpa Lahiri’s ‘Mrs. Sen’s’”
  • Elsa Heath, “Post-Traumatic Growth: Navigating Relationships in Lahiri’s ‘A Temporary Matter’”
  • Jennifer Tenney, “The Shape of Sorrow: The Role of Grief in Sir Orfeo and The Book of the Duchess”

•  

FRIDAY, MARCH 7

Registration and Check-in (9:00-10:00am)

Presenters can come pick up name badges and swag bags at the registration table next to the Education in Zion auditorium (at the bottom of the spiral staircase in the JFSB).

Session E (10:00-10:50am)

Panel E1: Unraveling Ignorance: Conscious Resistance and Liberation Through Knowledge in the Work of N. K. Jemisin (B132 JFSB)

Room: B132 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Jill Rudy

• • Sarah Wessman Pratt, “Chosen Versus Forced Immigration: A Study of Jemisin’s ‘Red Dirt Witch’”
  • Keeley Gibson, “Do You Know Your Enemy? The Roots of Division in N. K. Jemisin’s ‘The Trojan Girl’ and ‘Valedictorian’”
  • Bryce Rosengren, “Ignorance Unraveled: The Path to Conscious Decision-Making in Overcoming Oppression in Jemisin’s ‘The Trojan Girl’ and ‘Valedictorian’”
  • Jackson Johnson, “‘The Obedient Must be Slaves’: Jemisin’s Portrayals of Slavery and Rebellion in ‘Red Dirt Witch’ and ‘Walking Awake’”

Panel E2: Professional Writing Showcase (10:00-10:50, B101 JFSB)

Come check out how fellow students have used professional writing and rhetoric to do work for a client right here in Provo.

Room: B101 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Amy Williams

• • “From Concept Proposal to App Store Success: Professional Writing Showcase” (Breann Eardley, Desirae Rees, Elizabeth Van Ness, Julia Waters)

Panel E3: The Bard vs. The Songstress: Is it Shakespeare, or Is it Taylor Swift? (10:00-10:50, B103 JFSB)

You know you’ve been dreaming about this for years. Now’s your chance to see it happen, live. Will you be able to tell which author penned which lines in this interactive game panel?

Room: B103 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Sharon Harris

• • Prof. Jarica Watts
  • Prof. Jason Kerr
  • Rachel Gouff
  • Hallie Hilton
  • Annalisa Gulbrandsen

Panel E4: Gorgianic Games: The Art of Impromptu Persuasion (10:00-10:50, B142 JFSB)

Think you can talk your way out of anything? Channel your inner sophist and put your rhetorical skills to the test in this fast-paced session of impromptu persuasion. Inspired by Gorgias himself, this game challenges you to speak fast and think faster. Come ready to have fun and compete for prizes!

Room: B142 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Jarron Slater

• • Prof. Sam Dunn
  • Prof. Nicole Clawson
  • Maryn Perschon
  • Lena Rice
  • Natalie Roberts

English Fair (11:00-11:50am)

Room: B135 JFSB

The annual English Fair is your chance to learn more about the opportunities that exist for English students at BYU. Along with information, there will be snacks, games, and free English Department swag (including the 2025 English Department t-shirt). The following clubs and programs will be represented at this year’s English Fair:

• • Advisement
  • English +
  • College Belonging
  • Criterion, Inscape, & Whirligig 
  • CTE/CUWP
  • C. S. Lewis Club
  • English Society
  • English+
  • Graduate Programs
  • Research and Writing Center
  • Study Abroad Programs
  • Y-Fiction & Poets’ Society

English Reading Series: Scott Russell Morris (12:00-12:50pm, B190 JFSB)

Scott Russell Morris is a writer, a mixed media artist, and a zinester. He’s also an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Cornell College. His works have appeared in Brevity, Superstition Review, Proximity Magazine, and elsewhere. Most recently, Morris is the author of Points of Tangency (Cornerstone Press, 2024) and the creator of Magpie Zines. You can find him online at www.skoticus.com.

Morris will be available for book signing from 1:00-1:50pm, in B190 JFSB.

Session F (1:00-1:50pm)

Panel F1: Professors’ Show and Tell: A Research Showcase (B042 JFSB)

Ever wonder what your professors are up to when they’re not teaching you? Now’s your chance to learn. Come listen to stellar professors give lightning-fast talks about current research projects that they’re working on.

Room: B042 JFSB

• • Prof. Amber Jensen
  • Prof. Aaron Eastley
  • Prof. Chris Blythe

Panel F2: (Creative Writing) You May Already Be a Winner: Submitting to Literary Contests (1:00-1:50, B060 JFSB)

Have you ever wondered what it takes to win a literary contest? In this panel, featuring writers who have both won and judged contests, you’ll get advice about best practices for submitting your work to contests and journals.

Room: B060 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Steve Tuttle

• • Prof. Lance Larsen
  • Prof. Steve Tuttle
  • Kate Romney
  • Samantha Sorenson

Panel F3: Reading Between the Lines: Community, Identity, and the Unwritten (1:00-1:50, B103 JFSB)

Words tell a story—but so do the silences. This panel explores hidden meanings, unspoken connections, and the reader’s role in making sense of it all. Come check it out!

Room: B103 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Emron Esplin

• • Sophie West, “The Duality of Communities in Claudia Rankine’s Citizen“
  • Noah Hickman, “To Read What Was Never Written’: The Reader as Flaneur in Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons“
  • Brooke Farnsworth, “Death and the Divine: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Grief and Spirituality”

Panel F4: Wit, Wonder, and Belonging: Katherine Philips and the Bonds of Verse (1:00-1:50, B105 JFSB)

Room: B105 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Jason Kerr

• • Grace Soelberg, “Sacrifice and Grief in Katherine Philips’s Soul Unions”
  • Washington Pearce, “Embracing the Whole World: Katherine Philips’s Friendship Theology and the Platonic Soul”
  • Annalisa Gulbrandsen, “Religiously Conservative, Radically Religious: Katherine Philips’s Theological Engagement with Jeremy Taylor’s Discourse on Friendship” 

Panel F5: Wonder & the Supernatural: Myths, Fairy Tales, and the Boundaries of Reality (1:00-1:50, B106 JFS)

You know you’re curious. Who could resist a panel about magic, wonder, and the fine line between human and animal? I know I can’t.

Room: B106 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Joe Darowski

• • Jenna Topham, “Neither Man nor Beast: Moral Complexity in Bisclavret“
  • Caroline McDonald, “The Power and Magic of Names in ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ and Spinning Silver“
  • Amelia Webb, “Abandoning Disney for Brontë: The Transformative Wonder of ‘Wundermärchen’ in Realist Novels”

Session G (2:00-2:50pm)

Panel G1: Y-Writing Roundtable: Effective Student Writing (B042 JFSB)

Join us for a roundtable discussion about how curiosity and inquiry can inspire the writing process. Panelists will read a short portion of their contest-winning work and share perspectives about writing!

Room: B042 JFSB
Chairs: Prof. Tyler Gardner, Prof. Shannon Stimpson

• • Emilia Friend
  • Rome Greenmun
  • Bree Schwendiman
  • Andrew Smith 

Panel G2: Seeing and Believing: Vision, Symbols, and Redemption in Flannery O’Connor’s Stories (2:00-2:50, B060)

O’Connor’s world is full of strange symbols and even stranger revelations. This panel dives into the sometimes messy nature of grace, the tension between sight and blindness, and the unexpected ways redemption takes shape.

Room: B060 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Keith Lawrence

• • Jorja Webb, “Redeemable Swine: Biblical Allusions to Pigs in Flannery O’Connor’s ‘Revelation’”
  • Olivia Flynn, “Literal Versus Figurative Sight: An Examination of Vision in ‘Parker’s Back’”
  • Eliza Wynn, “‘Revelation’ and the Messy Nature of Grace in Flannery O’Connor’s Works”
  • Sally Bradshaw, “‘A heap of vanity’: Tattoos as Symbols of Sin and Grace in ‘Parker’s Back’”

Panel G3: Illuminated Minds and Disturbed Cosmos: Blake, Glück, and the Poetics of Transformation (2:00-2:50, B103)

From William Blake’s prophetic imagination to Louise Glück’s lyrical introspection, come explore with these panelists some poetry that unsettles, disrupts, and redefines the world around us. Come check out illuminated utopias, allegorical tensions, and the meeting of Romanticism and modern identity.

Room: B103 JFSB
Chair: Annalisa Gulbrandsen

• • Becca Goodson, “Blake’s Visions: A Prophetic Disturbance of the Allegorical Mode”
  • Anna Sampson, “Utopia in the Illuminated Manuscript: A Criticism of William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell“
  • Avery G. Lloyd, “New Romantics: American Narcissism Meets British Romanticism: Louise Glück’s ‘The Wild Iris’”

Panel G4: (Creative Writing) Writing for Younger Readers (2:00-2:50, B105 JFSB)

Come learn from some of the best about how to level up your writing for younger readers.

Room: B105 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Ann Dee Ellis

• • Prof. Ann Dee Ellis
  • Prof. Chris Crowe
  • Mikayla Johnson
  • Natalie Tate
  • Alison Hart
  • Avery Dall-Hilton 

Panel G5: Images of Women, Legacies of Power: Resistance, Freedom, and Belief (2:00-2:50, B150 JFSB)

Come explore with us the ways women navigate power, patriarchy, and freedom across time and cultures in literature.

Room: B150 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Meridith Reed

• • Coleman Numbers, “‘A Lotus Flower in the Mud’: Woman as Dialectical Image in 19th-Century Japan and America”
  • Michelle DeWitt, “Waving Goodbye to the Patriarchy: Love’s Touching Effect in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing“
  • Anya Searle, “Zero-sum Religious Freedom within the Context of New England Puritanism and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale“

Session H (3:00-3:50pm)

Panel H1: (Creative Writing) Poets’ Society (B042 JFSB)

Enjoy creative writing? Join BYUSA Poets’ Society as we discuss the cognitive benefits of collaborative writing groups and workshop a manuscript from BYU’s own Michael Lavers. This is your opportunity to connect with fellow writers and catch a glimpse of a professional poet’s creative process!

Room: B042 JFSB
Chair: Wilson Hurdle

• • Wilson Hurdle
  • Maddie Kenealey
  • Clarissa Walker

Panel H2: What I Wish I Had Known My First Year of the MA/MFA (3:00-3:50, B060 JFSB)

Thinking about applying to grad school? Or already been accepted but wondering what to expect? Come learn from seasoned grad students about tips and tricks for navigating that exciting but challenging first year.

Room: B060 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Spencer Hyde

• • Kath Richards
  • Shayla Frandsen
  • Lacey Hamilton
  • Liz Busby

Panel H3: Lost and Found: Grief, Authenticity, and Identity in YA Literature (3:00-3:50, B103 JFSB)

YA lit has a reputation for being “easy,” but the texts discussed in this panel are anything but. YA authors treat all the difficult topics that YA readers experience. This panel will examine some of those topics, considering why such difficult content is important for tween and teen readers to encounter in literature. [Content warning: Please be advised that the texts discussed in some of these presentations depict disordered eating, depression, substance abuse, racial violence, and self-harm.]

Room: B103 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Zach Largey

• • Rachel Baldwin, “The Impact of Morally Gray Characters in YA Literature”
  • MJ Ferguson, “Grief and YA Literature: Why Do They Work Well Together?”
  • Thea Manning-Neal, “The Importance of Middle Grade Novels with Representations of Depression”
  • Skyler Russell, “Authenticity in Young Adult Literature: A Study of Wintergirls“

Panel H4: Sacred Symbols and Temporal Ties: Identity and Religiosity in Short Literature (3:00-3:50, B105 JFSB)

What links the past to the present, the sacred to the hidden, or metaphor to meaning? This panel explores intergenerational identity, religious concealment, and the complexities of redemption, revealing the deep, often unseen threads that bind literature and life together.

Room: B105 JFSB
Chair: Prof. Kylie Turley

• • Ilse Eskelsen, “‘Linked’ and Unlinked: Temporal Identity and Intergenerational Connection in Zitkala-Ša’s ‘The Widespread Enigma Concerning Blue-Star Woman’”
  • Aubrey Boyle, “Holy Concealment: Modern Religiosity in ‘The Gardner’”
  • Briley Wyckoff, “The Problem of Metaphor, Disability, Redemption, and Symbolism in ‘The Hidden Hand’”

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