Department of English
Creative Writing Program
December 8, 2011
Dear Creative Writing Alumni:
It was wonderful to see all the faculty, alumni, and students during the Winter Wheat / MAR Festival
of Writing in November. The alumni lunch and the “State of the Program” address have become
traditions for the BGSU Creative Writing Program, and I enjoyed seeing students past and present
sharing stories.
One of the brightest spots for the program this past year was the addition of a tenure-line hire in
poetry, Jennifer Chang. Jennifer’s first book, The History of Anonymity, was published by
University of Georgia Press in 2008, and her work has also appeared in the Poetry Society of
America’s New American Poetry Series and in The Helen Burns Poetry Anthology: New Voices.
We’re also welcoming Kent Nelson as the Distinguished Visiting Writer in Fiction for the spring
semester. Kent is the author of nine novels and story collections, and has had work appear in Best
American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and Best of the West. It’s a tribute to the
strength of the program that, in a time of scarcity, our college and university continues to support us.
MFA applications are still higher and stronger than ever--about 120 applications per year to cover 10
slots. The number of BFA majors is very strong and running 80-100. We are continuing to work on
offering Eng 2040, Imaginative Writing as a general education requirement at BGSU as part of the
reform of undergraduate education. And we continue to work with the other arts at BGSU to ensure
that Creative Writing has its place as part of BGSU’s Center of Excellence in the Arts.
The AWP Annual Conference will be in Chicago this year, and as the last time the conference was in
the City of Broad Shoulders, the program will be hosting a reception. The reception will be on
Friday, March 2, 7:00 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., at the Hilton Chicago Hotel, Private Dining Room 3.
Details to follow, but you can mark your calendars now.
During our alumni lunch, I did mention that there are foundation funds dedicated to Creative Writing
at Bowling Green. These funds are:
Acct
Fund Name
30-000687
30-000715
Louise Cooper Book Award—Best BFA thesis in progress.
Irina Ratushinskaya Book Award—Best MFA thesis in progress that
embodies the spirit of freedom and human rights in Ratushinskaya’s life and
writings.
Frederick Eckman and Philip O'Connor Scholarship—“Deposit” account
to establish an endowment to offer a $1,000 per year award for a BFA to
apply to MFA programs or begin a literary career. We need $25,000 and only
have $50. Well, it’s a start.
Donna Sparkman Research Fellowship for Regional Studies--For an
MFA candidate to work on regional fiction or poetry—hey, could be the next
30-002056
30-002057
Creative Writing Program
211 East Hall
Bowling Green, Ohio 43403
419-372-6864
www.bgsu.edu
30-000287
Flannery O’Connor or Robert Frost? But we’re short around $200 this year.
Creative Writing Alumni Fund—General fund to help bring alumni to
Campus and other projects.
If you’d like to donate, I’ve attached to this email a pledge card for each fund. Simply print, fill out,
enclose payment, and mail to the address in the top left corner of the card. You can also go to
http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/alumni/about/page17868.html and click on the “Make a Gift Now”
button on the left side of the page. When you fill out the online form BE SURE to check “others” at
the bottom of the page and indicate the account number and/or fund name in the “please specify
intention of payment” block. If you have questions, you can call the Foundation at (888) 839-2586 or
email them at alumni@bgsu.edu.
We’ll continue to do our best to post news and keep it up-to-date on our web site. Visit our home
page any time. Click on NEWS on the left sidebar. Send your news to Max Kupresinian at
maxk@bgsu.edu. (We said a bittersweet goodbye to Mary Ann Sweeney, who is headed off to
retirement in Florida, but Max bids fair to be a worthy replacement). We’d also like to update and
expand the alumni email list. Please forward this letter to other alumni who might want to join the
mailing list. They can send a brief note to wmayo@bgsu.edu with an email address. I’ll get them on
the list!
Hope you’re all doing great and please keep in touch!
All the best,
Lawrence Coates, Director, Creative Writing Program