Indiana University's Creative Writing Program in the Department of English is now ranked among the top in the nation, according to the November/December issue of Poets and Writers Magazine.

Indiana University Bloomington will host a mini-symposium titled "Representing Animals in Art" as part of "Themester 2009: Evolution, Diversity and Change," the university's inaugural themed semester and a project of the College of Arts and Sciences. The two-day event will be presented by Art and Environment (Institute for Advanced Study New Knowledge Seminar) on the Bloomington campus Oct. 29-30.

Somewhere in the world, right at this moment, someone is watching the cult-classic 1998 Coen brothers film The Big Lebowski and sipping a white Russian. Just ask Ed Comentale, an associate professor of English at Indiana University Bloomington, who co-wrote and edited an upcoming book of essays analyzing the movie, titled The Year's Work in Lebowski Studies.

Indiana University Bloomington holds more than 560,000 audio and video recordings and film reels, many of which are historically significant, all of which are actively deteriorating. And the window of time to save these materials is closing fast.

High school teachers from across the country will converge in Bloomington July 6 for a four-week Picturing John James Audubon institute at Indiana University, the first of its kind. The institute is directed by Indiana University English Professor Christoph Irmscher (Alita Hornick from the IU Department of English helped organize the institute), and funded by a $200,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities through its Picturing America series of summer seminars and institutes for high school teachers. The institute will feature experts on Audubon, American art and natural history.

Lexical much? In his new book, Slang: The People's Poetry (Oxford University Press, 2009), Indiana University Assistant Professor Michael Adams describes -- and passionately defends -- slang as the creative expression of the every day. The first major work on American slang in nearly a decade, Slang neatly bridges the gap between pop culture and academia with a thorough examination of the ways Americans continually reinvent or combine words to keep language a living, breathing entity.

In her new book, Judas: A Biography, IU Distinguished Professor of English Susan Gubar delves into how Judas became a symbol of the Jewish people. She analyzes how Judas personifies a composite Judeo-Christianity that illuminates ambivalent relationships between Christians and Jews -- as well as changing attitudes toward the body, blood and money; greed and hypocrisy; suicide and repentance; and homosexuality and divinity. In the April 12 New York Times Sunday Book Review, Judas: A Biography was named to the Editors' Choice list.

A lecture by Jenny 8. Lee, a reporter for the New York Times and author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, and the annual Taste of Asia and AsianFest events will highlight IU's early observance of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, which honors the rich history and presence of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

Called "one of the greatest writers of our time" by the late novelist John Gardner, award-winning author Joyce Carol Oates will read and lecture at Indiana University's Indiana Memorial Union on Feb. 16 at 5 p.m. The lecture is part of a "Cultural Conflicts" series presented by the College Arts and Humanities Institute (CAHI). CAHI is financed by IU's College of Arts and Sciences to foster interdisciplinary research and cooperation among arts and humanities faculty.

Born and raised in Bloomington, Meg Cabot majored in fine arts at IU and worked as an illustrator for years before taking a chance on a writing career. Years of rejection later, Cabot won a contract with St. Martin's Press, through which she eventually published The Princess Diaries, the young-adult novel that would spawn a book and film series and alter the course of her career. Cabot will be honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award at the 2008 College of Arts and Sciences Annual Recognition Banquet on Friday, Nov. 7.

In a continued effort to "bring the world to the students," Indiana University Residential Programs and Services, Foster International Living-Learning Center and Collins Living-Learning Center will co-sponsor a series of workshops by Cherry Natural (aka Marcia A. Wedderburn) -- one of Jamaica's leading poets and women's rights activists -- from Oct. 28-30.

An "American Idol" semi-finalist and the author of The Chopsticks-Fork Principle, A Memoir and Manual will highlight Indiana University's annual early observance of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, which honors the rich history and presence of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

Outstanding recent books by Department of English faculty at Indiana University's College of Arts and Sciences have been recognized by Choice magazine, the official journal of the Association of College and Research Libraries, and by the Gutavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights.

Indiana University Bloomington professor George Hutchinson's latest book, In Search of Nella Larsen: A Biography of the Color Line, has been selected for the 2007 Christian Gauss Award of Phi Beta Kappa. Hutchinson will receive the award Dec. 7 at the Latham Hotel Georgetown in Washington, D.C. The $10,000 annual award from the Phi Beta Kappa Society is given for works of literary scholarship and criticism.

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky will present a talk and reading at Indiana University Bloomington on Oct. 26 at 4:30 p.m. at Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union. He is one of three former U.S. Poet Laureates who will visit the campus in the coming months as part of a series on the topic of "Solitude."

Though Nepal's embattled king has announced he will restore the nation's parliament, the nation's political problems are far from over and democracy still faces threatening challenges. Having lived with political unrest all of their lives, Nepalis understand that victory might be fleeting, according to Samrat Upadhyay, a native of Nepal and professor of creative writing at Indiana University Bloomington. Upadhyay focuses on how ordinary Nepalis cope with that unrest on a daily basis in his new collection of short stories, The Royal Ghosts.

Indiana University Bloomington and the Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program will host a landmark conference, "The Writer Uprooted: Contemporary Jewish Exile Literature," March 22-24, featuring presentations by 11 immigrant authors and scholars now living and writing in the United States. It is believed to be the first sizable gathering of such writers ever held in the nation. Renowned Romanian author Norman Manea will deliver the keynote address on March 22 and join his fellow writers as they reflect on the ties between exile and creativity.

For the past 25 years, the graduate creative writing program at Indiana University Bloomington has aspired to instill in each of its writers a lifetime habit of art. Evidence of the program's success is on display in a new 25th anniversary anthology of short stories written by its graduates, The Habit of Art: Best Stories from the Indiana University Fiction Workshop.

Indiana University's thriving -- and ever-growing -- arts scene will be in full bloom during ArtsWeek, the annual campus-community arts festival in Bloomington, Ind., now celebrating its 22nd year. ArtsWeek 2006, which will be held from Thursday (Feb. 23) to March 5, will offer audiences a cornucopia of opportunities to experience the best and most exciting creative work on and around campus and the community. The festivities include the world premiere of Ned Rorem's opera Our Town, as well as performances by such touring headliners as the Urban Bush Women and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Kyle Dargan, a graduate student in Indiana University Bloomington's Creative Writing Program, is making noise with his first collection of poems, The Listening: Poems. The book, which just received a favorable review in the New York Times Book Review, blends the language of hip hop with Dargan's maturing sensibilities.

The organizers of Indiana University's annual ArtsWeek celebration have decided to get creative and try something new this year. ArtsWeek, which will be Feb. 10-20, will not only showcase and honor the best and most exciting work on campus and in the surrounding community, but also enable audiences to learn just how artists do their work.

The Indiana University Writers' Conference, now in its 64th year, will welcome 10 nationally renowned writers to Bloomington from Sunday (June 27) to July 2 for a week-long festival of readings, classes and workshops.

When Danit Brown, Esther Lee and Lea-Ann Bigelow took the helm of Indiana Review, a student-edited journal published biannually with support from the Department of English at Indiana University Bloomington, it seemed only natural that they would put together an issue devoted to writing between cultures.

Think Nepal, and you'll likely think exotic. Yet Indiana University Bloomington Creative Writing Professor Samrat Upadhyay said the day-to-day struggles that his native countrymen face are universal. They include falling in love, getting married, lusting after the forbidden, staying faithful and finding happiness. And they are among the themes Upadhyay explored in his debut novel, The Guru of Love, which was recently nominated for the 2004 Kiriyama Prize in fiction.

The 63rd Indiana University Writers' Conference will welcome 12 nationally renowned poets and fiction and nonfiction writers to Bloomington June 22-27 for a week-long festival of classes, workshops and free nightly public readings.