News

January, 2022

I got some good news to start off the new year: The Modern West podcast is launching a three part series called Cowboy Up, and yours truly is included. The first episode of the series is out now and explores the history of juvenile justice in Wyoming, from the execution of Kansas Charley in 1892 to the current day. This episode is heavy on the history, and that’s how I got involved. Tennesse Watson was kind enough to call on me to share my thoughts about adolescence and frontier mythology. Even kinder, she included some of them in the episode. The arc of the story she tells here is fascinating, and I can’t wait to hear what’s next. You can check out the first episode here.

September, 2021

The first day of Autumn, and I just came across another generous review of Frontiers of Boyhood.  This one was written by Joshua Simpson and published in International Research in Children’s Literature.  Simpson writes:

“What is particularly interesting about all of this work is its juxtaposition of imagined childhood with the lived experiences of children, that is, of literary boyhood with actual boyhood for some. In doing so, it draws on research of the reading habits of young people and of the experiences of young performers to show how they engaged with fictional images of the West.”

That is, in fact, pretty much what I was going for!

June, 2021

Summer’s here, and many of us are long overdue for a vacation.  If you’re heading to Yellowstone National Park, which would be lovely, you might be heading through Cody, Wyoming.  In that case, Say hi to Kanye.  Also, I’m sure you will stop by the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.  In addition, you should make sure to pick up a copy of Cody Country Legends, an annual magazine put out by the folks who run the Cody Enterprise. This year’s edition includes an article of mine, “Buffalo Bill: Hero to Generations of American Children,” that originally appeared in Points West.   There are great articles on artist and conservationist A.A. Anderson and intrepid rancher Lucylle Moon Hall.

December, 2020

A lifetime (or maybe half a liftetime?) spent kicking around in the corridors of higher education comes with a number of perks, for one, you become the recipient of many alumni magazines.  I am very thankful to the kind folks who run UC Davis Magazine for including Frontiers of Boyhood in their list of “Alumni Books of 2020.”

October, 2020

Honored to read another positive review of Frontiers of Boyhood, this one in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly.  Brian Rouleau writes that this “rich and interdisciplinary study–combining elements of wester history, literary studies, media studies, and childhood studies–is difficult to summarize adequately.”  I can’t ask for higher praise than that!

October has been full of good news, as Animals and Ourselves, a collection edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson, Kathy Shepherd Stolley, and Lisa Lyon Payne has just been released.  I am very grateful to the editors for including my essay, “Cultivating Conservation: Childhood and Animalhood in the Fiction of Ernest Thompson Seton,” in this fine volume.

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September, 2020

Reviews of Frontiers of Boyhood have been coming in drips and drabs.  I was very excited to see this one in the Fall issue of Children’s Literature Association Quarterly– instutional access required.   It was written by Kenneth Kidd, and I am honored to read him describing my book this way:

“Engaing, well-researched, and full of fresh insights, this book has much to offer anyone interested in American literary and popular culture.”

April, 2020

Is it true there’s no such thing as bad publicity?  In that case, I am pleased to see the Los Angeles Review of Books run this not so glowing review of Frontiers of Boyhood.

John Burroughs spared some kind words for Frontiers of Boyhood in the Midwest Book Review, calling the book “a seminal work of original and meticulous and scholarship.”

February, 2019

I am heading up to Lancaster County–and not just for a buggy ride through the bucolic winter landscape.  Travis Kurowski has invited me up to talk about my writing and the world of small publishing with folks in the English Department at York College.  I will be giving a reading on campus on Monday night, February 18th, at 5 PM.  Check out the college website for more details.

December, 2018

I am happy to see my interview with Marah Gubar and Shauna Vey about 19th century child performers reposted in the features section of  the Society for the History of Childhood and Youth’s spiffy new website.  You can read my brief commentary by following the link and, more importantly, hear from Dr. Gubar and Dr. Vey on the accompanying audio.

October, 2018

Just got my copy of Shapers of American Childhood, edited by the fabulous duo of Kathy Merlock Jackson and Mark West.    There are some really wonderful essays in here, and I am honored to have a piece on Ernest Seton included in these pages.

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January, 2018

It’s 2018!  And Something Complete and Great: The Centennial Study of My Antonia is out from Rowan & Littlefield.

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Holly Blackford edited this fine collection of interdisciplinary assessments of Cather’s best novel (or at least my favorite, possbily not the same thing.   Possibly…)  I’m honored to be included among the many fine writers here with the chapter, “Boyhood and the Frontier: Nostalgia and Play in My Ántonia.

November, 2017

The Golden West beckons: I am heading out to San Diego for the Western History Association’s 57th annual conference, running from November 1-4.  I will be saddling up with the good folks from the Buffalo Bill Center of the West again, who are sponsoring the “Buffalo Bill and his Publics” panel on Saturday, November 4th, at 10:15.  The panel features a run of fine scholars, namely Jason Heppler, Jennifer R. Henneman, Shannon Murray, Pablo Rangel, Brent Rogers, Rebecca Wingo, Laura Arata, Douglas Seefeldt and myself.  You can find the full conference program here.

Upon return, I’ll be gearing up for a poetry reading on November 10th.  Larry Robin at Moonstone Poetry put this event together, and it should be a good one, featuring Joshua Weiner, Barbara Siegel Carlson, and Polish poet Tadeusz Dabrowski, making a rare U.S. appearance.  These are fine poets and translators, and I am honored to be sharing a bill with them.  You can read more below:

Friday November 10

September, 2017:

Coming soon (!!)

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August ,2017:

I just got back from a wonderful event in Cody, Wyoming, held at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.  The Buffalo Bill Centennial symposium brought together an impressive group of interdisciplinary scholars from around to world to explore Cody’s legacy.  I was especially impressed by a host of excellent papers devoted to Buffalo Bill’s transnational impact, including everything from Congolese youth culture to German cowboy literature.  It probably would have been more helpful to post this before I headed out to Cody, but, hey, nobody’s perfect.  What’s more, a signfigicant portion of the three day event was recorded for C-Span, and my talk goes live on September 5th.  Meanwhile, the Center was generously posted a story I wrote for Points West, the magazine they publish, a couple of years go.  I’m posting that link here now.

Update: Here’s a link to the C-Span program.  Julia Bricklin speaks first, then Monica Rico, and, finally, yours truly.

June, 2017:

Two conferences in one week?  Some day it couldn’t be done–or maybe just that it shouldn’t be done: regardless, I’m doing it.  I present June 21st, 3 sharp, at the Ninth Biennial SHCY Conference, held this year at Rutgers-University Camden, on a panel about scouting.  Ben Jordan and Mischa Honeck are on board, and I hope to learn a lot more about the BSA before it’s all said and done.  I’ll be talking about Buffalo Bill and his contributions to early scouting movements in America.  Actually, the whole SHCY line-up looks stellar this year, and I’ll be sorry to miss the action on Friday, June 23, when I fly off to Tampa for the ChLA’s annual conference.  At 2:00, I’ll be part of a panel entitled “Lions, and Horses, and Dogs, Oh My!:”Animals in Children’s Literature.”  I think we lost the paper on lions but picked up one on fleas.  I’ll be handling horses.

February, 2017:

Volume 10.1, Winter 2017, of the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth is out now, and I’m honored to be in it.   This is a great journal, and I’m lucky enough to have my article, “Wild West Children: Performing the Forntier,” featured alongside some truly wondeful work from top-notch scholars.  Check it out here.

I will be taking part in an intriguing symposium investigating the relationship between language and cultural identity at the Romanian Orthodox Church here in Philadelphia on February 19th.  Father Nicolai Buga put together the event, “Language: The Key to Preserving the Culture and Identity of a People.”  I’d put a question mark after that title, but, hey, that’s what the symposium is for, right?  Carrie Hooper, from Elmira College and Father Theodor Damian, from the Metropolitan College of New York will be joining me at the event, which will be held at 1:30 PM and is open to public.  The address is 714 N. American St., Philadelphia PA, 19123, in the Festivity Hall of the Church.

December, 2016:

This should be the last event of the year–but certainly not the least.  I’ll be performing at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn on 12/16 with the indomitable MARGENTO.  The occasion: the stateside release of  Moods & Women & Men & Once Again Moods, an eclectic collection of Romanian Erotic Poetry, edited by Ruxandra Cesearanu.  Hope to see you there.

November, 2016:

I’m elated that the new issue of Boyhood Studies is out and very excited to have my article, “The Nineteenth-Century Dime Western and Empowered Adolescence,” included in such fine company.  It’s a really strong issue–and I’m not referring my own contribution; check it out for yourself.

October, 2016:

I’ll be doing a couple of Philly readings this fall, and the first one will be October 14th, 7 (not so) sharp, at Kayuh–a wonderful bike store and coffee shop on Girard Avenue.  Izzy has worked hard to make this place a real part of the community, and he’s actually got a pretty intriguing speaker series lined up.  For more on that, and the reading, click here.

September, 2016:

I’ve got a review out in the latest issue of the Alberta Journal of Educational Research.  It’s a strong issue–and a good journal.  I reviewed John Spencer’s biography of educator Marcus Foster, a book that’s well worth your time if you’re interested in public school reform and urban education.  You can find the review here.

May, 2016:

What a busy month!  Or maybe, with the semester over, I can dedicate a bit more time and energy to this space.  At any rate, I’m pleased to announce that I have another episode up for the Society of the History of Children and Youth’s podcast series, Childhood: history & critique.  It’s a roundtable discussion with Marah Gubar and Shauna Vey about child performers on the 19th century stage.  Check it out here.

May, 2016:

More from the good folks at Plume, or more directly from my estimable colleague and partner-in crime MARGENTO.  Chris and I included a translation of Gellu Naum’s “Natura Urmana” in our Naum collection, and now he has revisited the poem and our interpretation of it.  Revisiting the poem, Chris describes our translation/mistranslation of the work, in which Naum imagines Miles Davis roaming the streets of Bucharest.  Read all of Chris’s notes here.

March, 2016:

Is it really March already?  Good gracious.  At any rate I’m delighted to see Simona Popescu’s “Ephebe With Cypripidedium” published in Plume.  I didn’t translate this poem; even better, MARGENTO did.  However, the poem does appear in Ruxandra Cesereanu’s wonderful anthology of Erotic Romanany poetry, and I worked on a number of poems in this impressive collection.  The book is out now from Romanian publisher Tractus Arte and will be distributed in the U.S. by Calypso Editions this fall.

Novemberish, 2015:

I recently interviewed Robin Bernstein about her research on childhood and race in America for the Society of the History of Children and Youth’s podcast, Childhood: history & critique.  Go here to listen to the interview and/or read the accompanying commentary. CHC is a multi-media series of interviews, essays, and reports on happenings relevant to the historical study of childhood; it’s hosted by a team of scholars and edited by Dr. Patrick J. Ryan.  The series is published and circulated online by the Society for the History of Children and Youth.

Friday, October 9th, 2015:

Woodside to read poetry at rock and roll dive bar par excellence.

Pete’s Candy Store is the place, and the time will be 6:30. Along with Tadzio Koelb and Claudia Serea, I’ll be opening a full bill of poetry, fiction, and rock and roll. Gillian Welch once wrote a song about “a five band bill a two dollar show.”  Soon I’ll be in that song, proving some dreams do come true. This is from the official press release:

“Calypso Editions invites you to celebrate the release of Morasses, André Gide’s brilliant satirical novel, long overlooked and now lovingly translated into English by Tadzio Koelb.  “Urbane, paradoxical, perverse,” Edmund White writes of Morasses, “André Gide “pioneered the post-modern novel a century before anyone else,” while Koelb’s material makes “this difficult, amusing example of the “literature of exhaustion” delightfully available.”

Tadzio will be joined by two fine writer/translators, Claudia Serea and Martin Woodside.  Claudia is a Romanian-born poet, translator, and editor whose third book of poetry, To Part is to Die a Little recently came out from Červená Barva Press.  Martin is a writer and translator who’s published two books of Romanian poetry in translation and who’s full-length collection, This River Goes Two Ways recently came out from Word Poetry.”

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