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Ray McManus

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Phone: 803-938-3817
Room: 104 Arts and Letters Building

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Division of Arts and Letters

RAY MCMANUS, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
English

Education
Ph.D. Rhetoric and Composition, University of South Carolina, May 2006. Specialization: Creative Writing Pedagogy. Dissertation: Someone Won’t be Coming Back: Three Chapbooks of Poems Exploring Death, Religion, and Divorce

M.F.A., Creative Writing, Poetry, University of South Carolina, 2001.

B.A., English, Writing Intensive, University of South Carolina, 1997.

Publications

Books
Left Behind, poetry, Stepping Stones Press, 2008
Driving through the country before you are born, poetry, University of South Carolina Press, 2007.

Poems
“The Gospel as Acid Reflux” Asheville Poetry Review, Fall 2008
“Harvest” Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Fall/Winter 2008
“Upon being eaten by a bear,” The James Dickey Newsletter, Winter 2008
“Red Barn,” “Toilet,” and “Things to tell my son” The Southern Poetry Anthology, Texas Review Press, Fall 2007.
“Artifact” commissioned by the The State Newspaper January 12, 2006.
“Negatives” Jabberwock Review Winter 2006
“Fist” Los Angeles Review Spring 2005
“Go,” “Orientation,” “Burning Caterpillars” A Millennial Sampler of SC Poets Ninety-Six Press: Furman Univeristy, Spring 2005
“The long way home” Natural Bridge Spring 2005
“Things to tell my son” and “Post Partum” White Marsh Review Winter 2004
“Black” and “White” The Recorder Summer 2004
“Main Street at Eighty,” “Gridlock,” “Pavement,” Traffic Life Winter 2003
“Go” Borderlands Spring 2003
“Trenches” Ellipsis Spring 2003
“Red Barn” Nimrod Spring 2003
“Orientation,” Crazy Horse Fall 2002
“A Short History of the Movies,” Interdisciplinary Humanities Spring 2002
“Oceans” and “Settlement,” Illuminations Spring 2002
“Stumps,” Cold Mountain Review Spring 2002
“Shores,” Natural Bridge Spring 2002

Selected Conferences
“Down in the Ditch: The Farm as Contradictory Metaphor in Death of a Naturalist” American Conference for Irish Studies, Southern Region, University of South Carolina, Columbia SC, February 23-25, 2006.

“Creative Writing in the Composition Classroom” Virginia State University Conference on Composition, National Conference, Virginia State University, Fredericksburg Virginia, May 20-21, 2004.

“Will the Real Michael Collins Please Stand Up: Blurring the myth and the man in Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins,” American Conference for Irish Studies, Southern Region, Emory University, Atlanta Georgia, March 4-7, 2004.

“Johnny can write, all you have to do is ask: and exploration of the overlap between creative writing and composition.” Co-presented with Lindsay Green, Conference of College Composition and Communication (CCCC), New York City, March 19-23, 2003.

“Rising to the Tick of Two Clocks: the Persistence of Memory in Modern Ireland.” American Conference for Irish Studies, Southern Region, Chattanooga Tennessee, February 21-23, 2003.

“Catch You Leda – Leda and the Swan as an Anglo-Irish Aisling, or a Recipe for Disaster.” American Conference for Irish Studies, Southern Region, Columbia SC, February 21-23, 2002.

Selected Readings
Piccolo Spoleto, Sundown Poetry Series, Reading, May 30, 2008
Irish American Poets Read, with Knute Skinner, University of Missouri, St. Louis April 3, 2008
Monday Night Blues, Reading, East Bay Coffee Shop, Charleston March 31, 2008
The South Carolina Book Festival, Reading, February 23-24, 2008
Frisson: American Vision on Art, Columbia Museum of Art, Reading, June 2, 2006
South Carolina Council of Teachers of English, Luncheon Reading, January 29, 2005
University of South Carolina Writer’s Festival, MFA Bistro Reading, October 22, 2004
Authentic Voices: A selection of the best SC Poets, Sumter County Opera House, March 25, 2004
Sumter Fringe Arts Festival, September 27, 2003
The Graduate Poets Circle, SAMLA Atlanta GA, November 10, 2001
The Sumter County Cultural Arts Commission Writer’s Festival, Sumter SC, April 2001

Selected Presentations
“Why Write?” South Carolina Lieutenant Governor’s Writing Award Ceremony, Shandon Baptist Church, June 4, 2007.

“Writing Through Poetry: Exploring Ways Poetry Can Enhance Language Arts Standards in the Classroom,” Lexington/Richland School District Five Teacher In-Service, February 19, 2007.

“Whittling away at your poems: the art of editing poems.” South Carolina Poets Summit. Columbia Museum of Art, April 9, 2005.

“Towards A Poetry Friendly School” Literacy and Learning at Your Library Presented with Dr. Kwame Dawes, South Carolina Association of State Librarians Annual Conference, Greenville, SC. March 24-26, 2004.