While DePaul University was on break for a month and a half, we graduate students embarked on our own projects we had been putting off for a whole quarter while we frantically scraped assignments together for classes and finals. During winter break, some of us continued to work our full or part time jobs. Others of us snuggled up on the couch for a consecutive 25 days watching Home Alone over and over or catching up on our favorite fall TV shows. Others traveled the country or the world visiting family and friends or just exploring new territory. Others of us continued plugging away at that first novel that’s sure to make us famous one day.

But for some MAWP and MAE students and alumni, winter break or year-long projects paid off over the winter break. Let us celebrate these accomplishments.

• Bethany Brownholtz (MAWP) designed the book jacket for recently-published book of poetry, ANATOMY OF A SHAPE-SHIFTER, by Stacia M. Fleegal.
• Bethany also organized a fundraising event at Columbia College, where she works in the Dance Movement Therapy and Counseling Department. The event, titled “Columbia’s Got Talent,” benefited Scholarship Columbia. Read more here.
• Madeline Szrom (MAWP) recently published an article she wrote in Professor Ted Anton’s Magazine Writing course. The piece, titled “Homes of Tomorrow,” will appear in the April 2011 issue of Shore Magazine.
• Chicago author and MAW alumnus Marco Buscaglia recently published a story in the Chicago Reader’s Fiction Edition. “The Specialist” is set on Chicago’s northwest side in the early 1980s. The main character is an aspiring basketball player in a Catholic grade school whose basketball skills have not always measured up to his ambitions. Marco teaches composition at Roosevelt University and works for the Chicago Tribune. He is a graduate of Notre Dame High School in Niles and Illinois State University. He earned his M.A. in Writing from DePaul University.

Also, while you were sleeping away those days in December, you may have missed some literary news. Check out some recent articles, etc. that have come to our attention over here in the grad office.

• Techdirt asks: “Have We Reached A Tipping Point Where Self-Publishing Is Better Than Getting A Book Deal?”
• The Common Review, a Chicago-based literary magazine, has been publishing some interesting nonfiction lately. Like this essay.
• Another Chicago Magazine published its 50th issue. DePaul faculty, including Miles Harvey, Achy Obejas, Kathleen Rooney, and Bayo Ojikutu are in the first installment of the issue.

Our faculty has been busy, as well, lining up book readings and other events. If you don’t have class that night, consider attending these DePaul English Department faculty events. Or if you do have class, let your professor know you want to go. They could be great for a field trip.

• Rebecca Johns will be reading from her new novel, THE COUNTESS, on January 20. 7pm at the Book Stall at Chestnut Court, 811 Elm St., Winnetka, IL.
• Hannah Pittard and Kathleen Rooney will be reading on January 25. 6pm at Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, Chicago.

And again, welcome back to the daily grind. We can already tell winter quarter is going to be busy, fun, and packed with events.