• Announcements

    ESA Annual Colloquium 2021

    The English Students’ Association is now calling for submissions to our seventh annual conference, the Colloquium! The conference features presentations from English undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty members, and will be held virtually on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Our submission deadline is currently Sunday, January 3rd, 2021 at 11:59 pmIf you don’t have a paper to submit but still want to get involved, you can also apply to be an editor! Please visit our website for criteria and the application form; the deadline for editor applications is Sunday, January 17th, 2021 at 11:59 pm. Please note that Presenter and Editor deadlines are different. Click here for Application for Editors…

  • Blog

    Hot Summer Reads: Sex and Vanity

    “In one kiss, you’ll know all I haven’t said.” – Pablo Neruda What’s better than Crazy Rich Asians? In one of the most highly anticipated and hottest summer reads of the year, Kevin Kwan puts the two elements of sex and vanity together into his aptly named novel. Fans of the Rachel Chu and Nicholas Young love story will be especially delighted to see the same incredible delivery of scandal, romance, and drama. Set in modern-day New York City, 19-year-old Lucie Tang Churchill visits Capri, Italy, for a relative’s wedding. During her stay, she meets George Zao, an excruciatingly handsome man who she says she despises though ends up falling…

  • Blog

    Love Under a Lens: Anna Karenina

    Photo courtesy of Focus Features Love. A four-letter word that stands for so much, but most of us are not sure what exactly for. What does love truly mean? And what does it look like? As someone who has had cups of water in her bedroom longer than has been in relationships, I am probably the wrong person to ask. So, where does one turn to find out the clues to such a confusing concept? Leo Tolstoy’s 1877 novel, Anna Karenina, of course. In this 800-page story, Tolstoy submerges into rich subjects of Imperial Russian life, family, religion, and of course, romantic love. Tolstoy sheds light on some of the most common…

  • Blog

    Creating a Story Without Words: Parallels in Story and Music-making

    Music and writing have a lot in common. You may have even heard stories themselves be described in terms of music- like beats of action, the rhythm of words, and the melody, or a voice, of an author. Throughout the years, these two disciplines have helped each other to both become powerful outlets of creativity and expression. When polyphony, or music with more than one independent voice, became common, there was also a rising interest in composing music with a story plot. Many techniques were developed, particularly in the Romantic Era, where extramusical art forms such as books and plays were used to help musicians find an emotional truth in…

  • Blog

    A Tribute to Stephen King

    To say that Stephen King is a good writer would be an understatement. With nearly 100 books selling over 350 million copies and stories transformed into television series and movies that have left an indelible mark on our pop culture, Stephen King is a capital “G” Great writer. I paid a visit to one of the Vancouver Writer’s Festival events called, “A Tribute to Stephen King,” and found myself in a room filled with people all with the same question: How? How exactly can a single man accomplish all of this? And more importantly, what has Stephen King taught us from his stories? The night started with a healthy sprinkling…