English Department Authors
Marian Anders
Bio: Marian Anders earned a Master of Arts degree in English from Florida State University. She has twenty-five years’ experience teaching all levels of grammar and composition, from basic skills developmental to advanced college grammar.
Publications:
2017 The Practical Grammar Handbook for College Writers
Unlike other handbooks cluttered with rarely needed information, The Practical Grammar Handbook for College Writers focuses on the grammar students actually need to write clearly and correctly. The chapter on research skills (with the 2016 MLA updates) presents the steps for writing a research paper in a clear, step-by-step manner that begins with analyzing a complete research paper and then learning the various skills needed for writing a research paper. The Practical Grammar Handbook for College Writers makes life much easier both for the students and the teacher. Students who have a natural ability for language will finally know WHY they put a comma in a sentence, and students who are more mathematically inclined will rejoice that at last grammar makes sense.
2013 Introductory College Grammar and Writing: Practical Grammar for Developing Writers
Introductory College Grammar and Writing guides students through the basics of grammar and writing using a unique step-by-step approach. In the grammar section, students learn a logical process for finding subjects, verbs, phrases, and clauses and then how to identify and fix fragments, comma splices, and run-ons. In the writing section, students are guided through the writing process to write a variety of basic-level paragraphs with emphasis on topic sentence and support. Introductory College Grammar and Writing develops students’ confidence and provides them with a solid foundation for learning more advanced material.
2009 My Dog Bites the English Teacher: Practical Grammar Made Quick and Easy
Gary Boyer
Bio: Gary Boyer is currently Adjunct Instructor of English at Alamance Community College, in Graham, North Carolina. He “semi-retired” in 2014 as Program Director for Management Programs and faculty member at Keuka College in Keuka Park, New York. He founded and led the development of the Keuka College CPS (Center for Professional Studies) Writing Support Center which opened in August, 2010. Prior to joining Keuka College, Gary served as Marketing/Outreach Specialist and part-time faculty member for the SUNY Empire State College FORUM Management Program in the CNY region. Gary spent his early professional career as an advertising, public relations, and marketing professional. He received his MA from Syracuse University and his BA from Gannon University. He lives in Mebane, NC with his wife, 2 dogs, and a cat.
Publication:
2013 Writing for College
A lighthearted look at college writing–complete with illustrations by cartoonist John Locke. Seventy-seven short essays about various aspects of the writing process, specifically intended to help college students–with practical advice–do a better job with their writing assignments.
Susan Dalton
Bio: Susan Dalton started teaching at ACC and studying Aikido the same year, 1991. She has a 4th degree black belt in Aikido and wrote for Aikido Today Magazine and currently writes for Aikiweb. Her husband tutors math at ACC, and she has two children, a granddaughter, a dog, a cat, and two granddoggers.
Publication:
Susan Dalton writes a column for the online publication Aikiweb. Some identify her as author and some just say “The Mirror.” http://www.aikiweb.com/columns/
Alexandra Marano http://www.alexandradesiato.com/
http://lifelongyogapractice.com/
Bio: In addition to teaching college-level writing and literature for over 15 years, Alexandra DeSiato Marano has achieved the highest level of yoga accreditation possible: Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher of the 500-hour level. She’s spent the last 7 years studying yoga in depth, and teaches yoga at various studios, retreat centers, and every fall and spring semester at our college. in August of 2017, Lifelong Yoga, a book written by Alexandra and co-writer by Sage Rountree was published by North Atlantic Books.
Publication:
2017 Lifelong Yoga
Gerald “Al” Miller
Bio: Miller received his B.A. from the University of Louisiana at Monroe with a major in English and minors in history, philosophy, and classical studies. He earned his M.A. in English at UNC-CH in 2004 with a major concentration in 20th-Century American Literature and a minor concentration in History of the Novel. He finished his Ph.D. in English from UNC-CH with a major concentration in 20th-Century American Literature and a minor concentration in Literary and Critical Theory. He has been a full-time faculty member at Alamance Community College since the 2012.
In addition to writing, research, and teaching, Miller is an avid horror movie fan, music lover, and video gamer. His research interests currently include modernism and postmodernism (with an emphasis on post-1945 American fiction), the Beat Generation, post-1945 cinema, Literary and Critical Theory, Psychoanalysis, Semiotics, Narratology, surrealism and the avant-garde, existentialism, post-structuralist philosophy, horror, and science fiction. He currently lives with his wife, daughter, and two cats in Burlington, NC.
Publications:
2020 Understanding William S. Burroughs
Part of the University of South Carolina’s series Understanding Contemporary American Literature, this study provides an overview of William S. Burroughs’s life and works from his early realist fiction through his more experimental novels, culminating in his final works and multimedia collaborations. While the book seeks to make Burroughs comprehensible for non-specialists, it also mounts an argument about the importance of Burroughs’s oeuvre for understanding postmodern fiction and poststructuralist theory more broadly. Understanding William S. Burroughs stages Burroughs as a turning point in American literature who continues to exert a powerful influence over each successive generation of artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and theorists.
2012 Understanding William Gibson
Part of the University of South Carolina’s series Understanding Contemporary American Literature, this manuscript examines the life and works of American author William Gibson from his early short stories through his most recent novels. Aimed at non-specialists, this study strives to demonstrate how Gibson’s body of work functions as an ideal means of exploring postmodern and posthuman concepts such as virtuality, hybridity, control, the media society, and the simulacral nature of our increasingly global civilization.
2010 Exploring the Limits of the Human Through Science Fiction
Part of Palgrave-Macmillan’s series American Literature Readings in the Twenty-First Century, this study explores the relation between science fiction and critical theory and stages science fiction as its own specialized form of critical endeavor. By placing literary and cinematic texts in dialogue with theoretical works on an equivalent plane, this project stages a series of interventions in different schools of theoretical thought (gender theory, psychoanalysis, postmodern and Marxist theory, and the cinematic theory of the spectacle) while simultaneously commenting upon the nature of critical theory itself. These particular theoretical discourses represent different attempts to conceptualize the human, and my project demonstrates the manner in which science fiction provides the ideal medium for exploring the limits of the human. Ultimately, this manuscript seeks to demonstrate how critical theory always represents its own kind of science fiction, a kind of science fiction that always concerns the human and its limitations.
2008 “‘To Shift to a Higher Structure’: Desire, Disembodiment, and Evolution in the Anime of Otomo, Oshii, and Anno.” Intertexts 12.1-2 (Spring/Fall 2008).
Maureen Sherbondy www.maureensherbondy.com
Bio: Maureen Sherbondy is a poet and short story writer. Her books include After the Fairy Tale, Praying at Coffee Shops, The Slow Vanishing, Scar Girl, Weary Blues, Eulogy for an Imperfect Man, The Year of Dead Fathers, Beyond Fairy Tales, Belongings, and The Art of Departure. Her work has appeared in The Roanoke Review, Feminist Studies, European Judaism, Upstreet, Stone Canoe, Southeast Review, North Carolina Literary Review, and other journals. Links to her books can be found at her website.
Olivia Stogner
Bio: Writing is my love. From writing poems and stories as I child, I’ve now published two novels. The Unfading is a journey story. The Unbinding is its sequel. They are fantasy—in the tradition of George MacDonald, C. S. Lewis, and Madeleine L’Engle. While creating a world where people can fly or live in the waters, these books also deal with such real issues as child labor, oppression, and finding how to best help one another. Carina, her family, and friends invite you to visit them in Kelwynden…anytime!
“I am always. The waters are deep. Do not be afraid. The ropes are strong, but you and your friends will be the unbinding of them…You will be a part of the bringing of the light.” -The Unbinding
Publications:
2016 The Unbinding: A Sequel to the Unfading
The Unbinding is a sequel to The Unfading. It is imaginative fiction in the tradition of C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Madeleine L’Engle. The Unbinding continues to unfold the story of a young girl, Carina, and her friends and family. It is set in the land of Kelwynden, where some fly, some live in the seas, and some walk on land. There are ancient books to be discovered and mysteries to be solved. The wise wanderer, Elias, comes and goes, but his voice can be heard in the waters…for those who will listen. Queen Carina Amara now reigns at the island castle of Veradis Kel, in the land of Kelwynden. The castle is being restored, the library is magnificent, and all is well. Or is it? Even while Carina longs to know more of the people of the sea, a mysterious book with stories of the winged ones washes up on the shores of the island. Who wrote it? Will it hold answers—or only bring more questions? As the search for Opal’s grandson continues, troubling tales of other missing children come to light. In the North, a new leader, Cass Fowler, comes to power. There are stories, secrets, and whispers that something is gravely wrong. The stories are not all in the past. They are still in the telling. Will Carina and her friends be in time to stop this evil and save more children from a terrible fate? What will meet them in Arundel, in the North? And when will Elias come again?
2010 The Unfading
Under the light of the fading stars, a bright-eyed child in a strange boat washes up on the shores of the River Blythe. Calder is expecting another day of fishing, but instead he finds her. He takes the child home to his wife, Eldoris. They call her Carina. So begins Carina’s journey to find out who she is and what a faded book in a strange language and a tear shaped jewel have to do with her ancestry and her destiny. Throughout her journey, Carina is both helped and hunted. In the land of Kelwynden, things are not always as they seem. Carina has heard many stories from the Eldress Altea and the wanderer, Elias. There are tales of those with wings, those who live in the sea, an ancient book, and a wonderful spring. Were those only legends or could they be true? Carina is about to find out. The Unfading is more than a story. It is a story about stories and about finding out who it is you are becoming.