The West Virginia Association of College English Teachers will hold its spring conference at West Virginia Wesleyan College March 22 and 23, 2002. The association includes scholars and teachers representing all the state college and universities, both public and private. The WVACET will hold sessions the evening of March 22 beginning at 7:30 p.m. and the morning of March 23 beginning at 9:00 a.m. All sessions will be held in Nellie Wilson Lounge, located in the Benedum Residence Hall on the Wesleyan campus, and are free and open to the public.

In conjunction with the conference, West Virginia University poet Jim Harms will be one of the featured speakers. He will read at 7:30 p.m. on the second floor of the Wesleyan library on Thursday, Mach 21, 2002, as well as meeting with English and writing classes at Wesleyan. In addition, Harms, the director of the newly established Masters of Fine Arts in Writing at WVU, will present the first WVACET session on Friday evening at 7:30. His topic will be "The Peculiar Popularity of the MFA: Creative Writing as a Growth Industry."

Mr. Harms completed his undergraduate work at the University of Redlands and received an M.F.A. from Indiana University. He has taught at Denison University, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, and West Virginia University, where he is currently Associate Professor of English. Carnegie Mellon University Press published Modern Ocean, Harms' first book of poetry, in 1992. In 1999, Harms was named both Outstanding Teacher and Outstanding Researcher by the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University, as well as the WVU Foundation Outstanding Teacher.

Another WVU faculty member, Tim Adams, chair of WVU's English department, will present a session Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m. on "Graduate Studies in English in the Twenty-first Century." Other presentations on contemporary and classic literature will be given by faculty from Marshall University, Alderson-Broaddus College and Salem International University.

For more information regarding the conference, contact Dr. Mark DeFoe, Professor of English and chair of the West Virginia Wesleyan College English Department, at (304) 473-8701.