“Davenport is a home for outsiders, a place where being different is not very different.”
— Floyd Dell, Moon-Calf
Radical novelist, essayist, and literary critic, Floyd Dell was at the center of American literature in the 1920s.
As a teenager, Dell worked in Davenport’s factories and wrote for the Tri-Cities Worker; by night, he walked along the Mississippi River and composed poetry.
Later, the so called “young rebel of Davenport” would go on to become the literary editor of The Masses, one of the most vibrant and radical magazines of the day.
A writer himself, Dell wrote novels and short stories (about bohemian life in Greenwich Village), works of non-fiction (about such radical topics as feminism, sex, and childrearing), and even two memoirs ("Moon-Calf" and "Homecoming") about growing up in Davenport.
"Today Floyd Dell is considered by critics to be a minor writer and is virtually unknown to the general reading public; but during the first decades of the century, it was impossible to read national newspapers, literary magazines, or book reviews without coming across his name.
"If anyone could be said to be the early chronicler of modernism in America and of the great migration of writers and artists from the Midwest to Greenwich Village, it was Floyd Dell.
—Linda Ben Zvi, literary critic
Augustana's fall Symposium Day 2024 invited big ideas from any and all disciplines, welcoming presentations from students, faculty and staff, and distinguished guests — including keynote speaker Dr. Roosevelt Montás from Columbia University and Dr. Chris Hedlin '11 from the University of Notre Dame.
To prepare future teachers, the Golden Apple Foundation provides training and teaching experience during summer institutes; mentoring; academic and social support; and job placement assistance. Augustana is one of the program’s 50+ Illinois college and university partners.
Carly Davis's poem "Seattle Song" won the 24th annual Vázquez-Valarezo Poetry Award at Augustana.
