The OWU English Department Blog
This past May, I went on a TPG trip to various Scandinavian cities, including Copenhagen, Denmark. The trip was entitled “Wellness in Scandinavia,” and was part of my work with wellness promotion and harm reduction on campus with The Bishop Way. The Scandinavian region was selected because of their consistently high ratings on the World Happiness Report, the two nations we visited–Sweden and Denmark–ranking fourth and second, respectively (for reference, the U.S.…
I have a habit of needing to know everything there is to know about the media that I consume–books, movies, songs–that’s given me a lot of random and mostly useless knowledge. I read the Acknowledgements section in books, Wikipedia asks me for money a lot because I’m always looking up actors and singers, and I frequently say the phrase “I need to know the lore.”…
The figure who inspired Babylonia was unknown to me before reading this novel, but I did recognize two other aspects of the book–the author, Costanza Casati, and my fondness for books with blades on the cover. A little different from the previous books in this series, there is at least confirmation of its titular figure being a real person. …
Happy Halloween! Here are a couple more recommendations from editor Serena Sweeney:
1) I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
A film you should try to watch this fall if you have not already is I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020), a psychological thriller directed by Charlie Kaufman, and is based on a book by Ian Reid.…
“Organic Evil.” These are two words that Alfred Hitchcock uses to describe the tone of the stories that make up the collection titled Alfred Hitchcock Presents: More Stories NOT for the Nervous. Hitchcock and author Robert Arthur worked together to gather many thriller short stories that they thought were amazing and put them all together in this collection.…
I went to Barnes and Noble with my friend in December, and as we walked around we couldn’t help but notice that there was an unusual amount of books that had sprayed edges. Sprayed edges are a design feature in which a book’s edges are embellished with colors, patterns, and/or images.…
Looking through my books one day, searching for something to read, I couldn’t help but notice a theme. Scanning my shelves, I saw titles like: A Study in Drowning, The Half-Drowned King, He Who Drowned the World, We the Drowned. I laughed to myself, thinking I’d clearly hyperfixated.…
If you are reading this, then you probably love the Java Chip Frappuccino as much as I do. It was one of Starbucks’ signature coffee beverages officially until March 2025. The Java Chip Frappuccino was my drink of choice once my young taste buds grew to develop a liking for the flavor of coffee.…
Hundreds of unidentified coal mines burrow beneath the surface of Perry County, Ohio, and its surrounding communities, forming a skeleton of the region’s once-thriving economy. These towns, known as The Little Cities of Black Diamonds, once thrived; reliant on coal, miners, and the economic flow this industry supplied. However, since coal’s peak in Ohio during the 19th century, industrialization, technological advances, and shifting energy priorities have pushed the industry into decline, weakening the demand for coal. …
Abandoned small towns throughout the Southeastern Appalachian region of Ohio share roots deep within the mining industry. These towns are commonly called “Little Cities of Black Diamonds,” honoring their historical ties to coal, industrialization, and once flourishing economies.
Perry County, Ohio, is among these Little Cities of Black Diamonds. Once an industrial hub consisting of multiple coal boomtowns, Perry County and its residents have faced economic declines since the mid-1900s.…