Creative Writing Alumni News

Richard Behm (MFA 1973; Ph.D Literature 1976), retired Professor Emeritus from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, was one of five faculty given a University Excellence in Teaching Award for the 2005-2006 academic year. Now that he’s retired, Richard has several writing projects he’s working on, including two or three book-length collections of poetry, pulling together nearly three hundred poems he has had published in magazines large and small over the years.

Mark Berman (MFA 1976) has been appointed Technical Adviser to the ESF Legal Commission, and this is aside from his role as Technical Adviser to the Israeli Women’s Team, which is preparing for the 2007 qualifier for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Mark tells us, “I thought that I had retired!”

Mary Biddinger (MFA 1998), for her debut book of poems, Prairie Fever, just out with Steel Toe Books. She’s also received a $5,000 Individual Creativity Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council for work on her next book. Mary is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Akron. She also teaches in the Northeast Ohio MFA Program. Congratulations, Mary!

Creative Writing News Update

A few pieces of good news from the Creative Writing Program to belatedly pass along.

The Program had a doubly good evening at the recent Shanklin/GSS Awards Ceremony Friday, April 27, 2007. Jennifer Bryan received BGSU’s Outstanding Graduate Student Award. Sruthi Thekkiam won BGSU’s Outstanding International Graduate Student Award. This is a wonderful distinction for Jennifer, Sruthi, and the Program.

The Devine Award winners for 2006-2007 are: Kate Lane and Dan Falkner in fiction; and Julie Platt and Rocco Lungariello in poetry.

Sruthi Thekkiam’s “Always in the Way” and Beth Kaufka’s “The Company of Others” have been nominated for the next New American Voices fiction anthology. We’ll know if they were successful in spring 2008. Wish them luck!

Sharona Muir, Associate Professor, for The Book of Telling (Random House/Schocken Books, 2005), winner of the 2006-07 College English Association of Ohio Nancy Dasher Award in Creative Writing; Howard McCord, whose latest book, a blended collection of poetry and prose entitled Swamp Songs and Tales, was released May 1, 2007 by Mississinewa Press; Larissa Szporluk, for her latest collection of poetry, Embryos & Idiots, released in May 2007 with Tupelo Press.

Congratulations to all.

Dr. Rea McCain, Department Pioneer

University departments tend to be notoriously transient places; students arrive and then graduate, faculty and staff are hired or move on to other opportunities, and the semester-long rhythms of the academic calendar wax and wane. So it was with some surprise that we recently learned of the life and long career of the very first Chair of the Department of English, Dr. Rea McCain.

Dr. McCain was not only our first chair at then Bowling Green Normal College in 1914, but went on to serve as such for another thirty eight years, eventually retiring in 1952 as Professor Emeritus.

Eric Honneffer of the Center for Archival Collections which houses Dr. McCain’s papers writes in his finding aid for the collection that she “directed the first plays on campus, taught public speaking and oversaw the debate teams. She was instrumental in organizing the campus chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honor Society, as well as other local honor societies.” He continues:

Dr. McCain traveled extensively [and] fifteen years prior to her retirement she visited Europe on at least five occasions. In 1950 she was a delegate to the International Federation of University Women’s Convention in Zurich, Switzerland. Once retired she traveled to Iceland on a freighter and in 1953 drove to Alaska on the Alaskan Highway. She even wrote a travel column for the Bowling Green Sentinel Tribune.

No word yet on whether current Chair Dr. Kris Blair plans on matching her predecessor’s remarkable achievement;) Get back with us in 2043!

Congratulations, May 2007 Graduates

The Department’s faculty and staff are proud to recognize the following students who earned a degree in one or more of our undergraduate programs in May.

Bachelor of Arts (English)

Major: Tony Almaguer, Amanda S. Busch, Clayton J. Chiarelott, Nicole M. Conforto, Jonathan S. Edwards, Jessica S. Fausnaugh, Amanda R. Fox, Meaghan A. Geraghty, Teri M. Gladden, Eric M. Greene, Sarah M. Griffith, Julie A. Hack, Laurie E. Haller, Rebecca J. Halsey, Ryan D. Ingram, Janette M. Manley, Steven H. Moore, Michael A. Newmister, Rachel L. Overmyer, Sophie L. Taylor, Christina L. Weitzel.

Minor: Daniel Ashwood, Steven J. Barrie, Travis J. Beckwith, Megan M. Bobovetz, Melissa A. Cole, Ashleigh N. Nye, Timothy R. Westerman.

Minor in Linguistics: Mary K. Hammon, Julie M. Mason.

Bachelor of Fine Arts (Creative Writing)

Major: Steven J.Barrie, Travis J. Beckwith, Thomas A. Bolda, Melissa A. Cole, Kristin M. Diamond, Mary K. Hammon, Hope C. Hammond, Stephanie L. Liverani, Alana R. Price, Ashley N. Rutter, Allison D. Scott, William H. Scroggins, Rebecca A. Sponseller, Timothy R. Westerman, Rachel R. Wilson.

Minor: Clayton J. Chiarelott, Nicole M. Conforto, Toby R. Deck, Sarah M. Griffith, Laurie E. Haller, Janette M. Manley, Michael A. Newmister.

Bachelor of Arts (Scientific and Technical Communication)

Major: Julie M. Mason.

Minor: Allison D. Scott.

Honors

summa cum laude: Steven J. Barrie, Jessica S. Fausnaugh, Amanda R. Fox, Julie A. Hack, Mary K. Hammon, Julie M. Mason.

magna cum laude: Thomas A. Bolda, Laurie E. Haller, Rachel L. Overmyer, Sophie L. Taylor, Timothy R. Westerman.

cum laude: Travis J. Beckwith, Kristin M. Diamond, Jonathan S. Edwards, Meaghan A. Geraghty, Rebecca J. Halsey, Steven H. Moore, Michael A. Newmister, Ashley N. Rutter, Christina L. Weitzel.

Congratulations and happy trails to all of our graduates!