25th Annual English Awards Day
Writing Program Awards
First Year Essay Winners
Carolina Da Silva (Instructor: Kristi Branham):
"The Hispanic American Dream: How American Consumerism Affects Latinos Living in the USA"
John Edward Cornwell (Instructor: Joshua Reid)
"You are Watching Big Brother: The Mass Media Oligarchy in America: Theory and Practice."
First Year Essay Honorable Mention
Sislye Soper (Instructor: Jessica Hays)
"Long-Term Loss for a Short-Term Gain"
Charles Olvera (Instructor: Tom Marksbury)
"Gender Roles in Hip-Hop Culture: Misogyny or Myopia?"
Emily Morrison (Instructor: Colleen Glenn)
"It’s Skyline Time"
Kevin Roberts (Instructor: Judy Prats)
"Orange Blossom Avenue"
Emily Cox (Instructor: Todd Campbell)
"The Power of Questioning"
Teaching Awards
Outstanding Writing Program Teaching Assistant
Beth Connors-Manke
Outstanding Writing Program Instructor
Erik Reece
Outstanding Teaching Assistant in a Literature Class
(TBA)
Excellent Writing Program Instructors: Spring 2005
Gabriel Briggs, Sean Dummitt, Cassie Fetters, Hannah Freeman, Katherine Osborne, George Phillips, Lisa Schroot-Mitchum, Amanda Stroud
Excellent Writing Program Instructors: Fall 2005
Cassie Fetters, Dax Jennings, Katherine Osborne, George Phillips, Katherine Rogers-Carpenter, Lisa Schroot-Mitchum, Amanda Stroud, Nikki Tarrant-Hoskins, Matthew Towles
Undergraduate Awards
John Spalding Gatton Provost Scholarship in Arts & Sciences
Meghan E. Hammack
Dantzler-Dantzler Award for Academic Achievement for a Senior
John W. Dixon, Mallory V. Emerson, Amanda K. Gatewood
O.J. and Ruby Wilson Scholarship for Outstanding Senior
Timothy R. Wiseman
Prospective High School Teacher Award
Eric S. Shields
Barbara Sutton Cowles Scholarship to an Outstanding Senior
Andrew J. Bozio
Imaginative Writing Awards
Farquhar Award for Poetry
Candace Chaney
Honorable Mention: Eric Rickert; Kayla Whitaker
Dantzler Award for Fiction
Douglas Caverly
Honorable Mention: David Crawford; John Dixon; Amy Forgue; Ryan Lay
Graduate Awards
Ellershaw Award for Oustanding Ph.D. Candidate
Melissa Perdue
William J. Sowder Award for Best Graduate Student Critical Paper
Joshua Reid; Cassie Fetters (Joint Winners)
Faculty Retirement
O.R. Dathorne
22nd Annual English Awards Day
Writing Program Awards
English 101
Joint Winners: Julia Ann Elliot (Instructor: Cheryl Cardiff)
Muhammed Rasheed (Instructor: Dina Smith)
English 102
Sarah J. Hale (Instructor: Anna Froula)
Honorable Mention: Kara LeeAnn Pearson (Instructor: George Bebensee)
English 105
Joint Winners: Dustin Adkins (Instructor: Lisa Toner)
Carrie Singer (Instructor: Chris Green)
Honorable Mention: Amanda Filak (Instructor: Brooke Alexander)
Teaching Awards
Outstanding Writing Program Teaching Assistant
Emily Biggs
Outstanding Writing Program Instructor
Daniel Elkinson
Outstanding Writing Program Peer Tutor
Jessie Clark Summers
Outstanding Writing Center Consultant
Judith Schiffbauer
Outstanding Teaching Assistant in a Literature Class
Kristi Branham
Honorable Mention: Jason McEntee
Excellent Writing Program Instructors: Spring 2002
Gary Beagle, Christina Bentley, Michelle Dell Toro, Dan Elkinson, Jim Fields, Matt Godbey,
Kenneth Hawley, Sarah Marks, Dan Omlor, Erik Reece, Katherine Rogers-Carpenter, Amy Scher,
Judie Schiffbauer, Nichole Schwartz, Dan Schumer, Allison Steele, Abbey Tabatabaie,
Mary Kathryn Tri, Tony Ubelhor, John Williamson
Excellent Writing Program Instructors: Fall 2002
Christina Bentley, Michael Benton, Bob Callen, Michelle Catlin, Michael Carter, Jamie Fairfield,
Jim Fields, Todd Fisher, Sarah Fitzpatrick, Stacey Floyd, Matt Godbey, Chris Green, Amanda Hamm,
Judith Heaney-McKee, Wes Houp, Rebecca Howell, Deborah Kelley, Sarah Marks, Meg Marquis,
Dan Omlor, Melissa Purdue, Judy Prats, Joseph Sanders, Amy Scher, Judie Schiffbauer,
Nichole Schwartz, Dan Schumer, Allison Steele, Matthew Towles, Terrence Tucker, Danny Tweedy,
Tony Ubelhor, Jonathan Vincent, Joe Wegrzyn
Undergraduate Awards
Dantzler-Dantzler Award for Academic Achievement for a Senior
Joint Winners: Holly Jones, Paul McCaffrey
O.J. and Ruby Wilson Scholarship for Outstanding Senior
Joint Winners: Jessica Couch, Jessie Clark Summers
Honorable Mentions
Benjamin Brinner, Matthew Naylor, Kevin Waldo
Prospective High School Teacher Award
Bobby Howard
Honorable Mention: Erin Bentley
Imaginative Writing Awards
Farquhar Award for Poetry
John Vance
Dantzler Award for Fiction
Amanda Gatewood
Graduate Awards
Ellershaw Award for Oustanding Ph.D. Candidate
Jeff Osborne
William J. Sowder Award for Best Graduate Student Critical Paper
George Phillips
Faculty Recognition
William S. Ward Prize for Distinguished Achievement by a Faculty Member
Jonathan Allison
Twenty-Five Years of Service
Gregory A. Waller,
Steven Weisenburger
Valedictory
Steven Weisenburger, Arthur Wrobel
Proposal for an Interdepartmental Program in Race, Ethnicity,
and Civic Identities of the Americas
Summary
The study of race, ethnicity, and civic identities is a dynamic and broadly influential aspect of contemporary academic scholarship, very much in the forefront of research in the humanities and the social sciences. This groundbreaking work is at its best truly interdisciplinary.
Through the widely praised and influential work of faculty in the Departments of English, History, and Hispanic Studies, the University of Kentucky has already established a national and international reputation as a source of excellent work on race, ethnicity, and civic identities.
We seek to encourage a highly visible program of collaborative and cross-disciplinary research and teaching. Such a program, involving English, History, and Hispanic Studies will greatly enhance all three of UK's top-tier humanities departments, encouraging joint research projects and shared symposia and serving as an important way of attracting top-rank graduate students who seek the opportunity to work outside traditional departmental lines.
Faculty News
Bobbie Ann Mason
Bobbie Ann Mason picks up her second Southern Book Award for her collection of short stories about ordinary Southerners, Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail. Mason also won in 1994 for her novel Feather Crowns. Her other works include Shiloh and Other Stories and In Country. The award will be presented October 12, 2002 at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN.
David Lee Miller
The University of Kentucky Alumni Association has chosen Dr. Miller for the College of Arts and Sciences "Great Teachers" award for 2002.
Yolanda Pierce
Dr. Pierce is the recipient of the 2001-2002 Womanist Scholars Program Fellowship, which is funded by the Ford Foundation and sponsored by the
Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The program promotes scholarly activities
in the area of Black women, religion and spirituality.
Dr. Pierce will be in year-long residence at the program, completing a manuscript titled Hell
Without Fires: Religion and the Antebellum Slave Narratives. This work examines the impact of religion
on the slaveholding and enslaved communities using autobiographies, personal narratives, tracts, and broadsides
authored by African American missionaries, evangelists and preachers. Hell Without Fires specifically
addresses the role of Black women and the impact of their spirituality on the slave community. Fundamentally,
the project seeks to address how enslaved African Americans could be Christians, despite the use of biblical
rhetoric that justified their enslavement.
In addition to receiving the Womanist Scholars Fellowship, Dr. Pierce was also recently the recipient
of the Ochillo Award for her journal article "How Saul Became Paul: The African-American Conversion Experience"
published in Griot: The Official Journal of the Southern Conference on Afro-American Studies.
Dr. Ronald L. Pitcock
The UK Graduate School awarded Dr. Pitcock a Visiting Distinguished Faculty Award. With those funds, Lester Faigley, the Robert Adger Law and Thos. H. Law Centennial Professor in the Humanities at the University of Texas, served as a member of Pitcock's dissertation committee.
Pitcock wrote his dissertation, "Regulating Illiterates: 'Uncommon' Schooling at the Choctaw Academy, 1820-1845," under the direction of Janet Carey Eldred and Peter Mortensen, now on faculty at the University of Illinois. Working from interests in literacy and American culture, Ron Pitcock's dissertation concentrates on nineteenth-century
Native American English-language literacy and the sponsorship of that literacy. Using extensive archival resources, Pitcock
reconstructs the rhetorical education of young Native American men who boarded at an academy founded for them just outside
Lexington, Kentucky. Listening to students' written voices, he tells a richer story than currently exists of the Choctaw
Academy, and, more generally, of nineteenth-century Native American literacy sponsorship.
Professor Pitcock has published a chapter of his dissertation in Written Communication and presented parts of the work at the
Modern Language Association, the Penn State Conference on Rhetoric and Composition, and the Conference on College Composition
and Communication. He joined the faculty at TCU in Fall 2001 as an Assistant Professor of English.
21st Annual English Awards Day
Writing Program Awards
English 101
Robyn E. Plemmons (Instructor: Amy Scher)
Honorable Mention: Kristen Race (Instructor: Danny Mayer)
English 102
Christopher Cross (Instructor: Lisa Toner)
Honorable Mention: Laura Ann Serke (Instructor: Hallie Brinkerhoff)
English 105
Dora Sherrow (Instructor: Lisa Toner)
Teaching Awards
Outstanding Writing Program Teaching Assistant
Bess Fox
Outstanding Writing Program Instructor
Richard Smith
Outstanding Writing Center Consultants
Daniel J. Elkinson & Sean Morris
Outstanding Teaching Assistant in a Literature Class
Jeff Birkenstein
Excellent Writing Program Instructors: Spring 2001
Laura Barrio-Vilar, Heather Bennett, Christina Bentley, Amy Birk, Michelle Catlin, JoAnn Circosta,
Jim Fields, Anna Froula, Sarah Fitzpatrick, Robin Gray, Kenneth Hawley, Rebecca Howell, Dan Omlor,
Tom Reynolds, Judie Schiffbauer, Doris Settles, Dan Shumer, Mary Kathryn Tri, Tony Ubelhor,
Julie Walter, Joe Wegrzyn, John Williamson
Excellent Writing Program Instructors: Fall 2001
Erin Abner, Brooke Alexander, Chad Barbour, Laura Barrio-Vilar, George Bebensee,
Christina Bentley, Emily Biggs, Amy Birk, Hallie Brinkerhoff, Bob Callen, Katy Casey,
Michelle Catlin, JoAnn Circosta, Mason Dyer, Jamie Fairfield, Jim Fields, Todd Fisher,
Melissa Fore, Anna Froula, Chris Green, Amanda Hamm, Valerie Hatton, Kenneth Hawley,
Michael Kennedy, Sarah Marks, Danny Mayer, Dan Omlor, Phyllis Rambsy, Erik Reese, Tom Reynolds,
Cindy Salmons, Judie Schiffbauer, Doris Settles, Dan Shumer, Allison Steele, Lisa Toner,
Mary Kathryn Tri, Terrence Tucker, Tony Ubelhor, Julie Walter, Joe Wegrzyn, John Williamson
Undergraduate Awards
Dantzler-Dantzler Award for Academic Achievement for a Senior
Jocelyn Taylor and Clayton Richardson
O.J. and Ruby Wilson Scholarship for Outstanding Senior
Amanda Sue Brower
Honorable Mentions
Melissa Estes, Erin McKenzie, Eric Shields, Leigh Troutman, Angela Ward
Prospective High School Teacher Award
Darrin J. Pollock
Imaginative Writing Awards
Farquhar Award for Poetry
Nick Wilczek
Dantzler Award for Fiction
Robyn E. Plemmons
Graduate Awards
Ellershaw Award for Oustanding Ph.D. Candidate
Ann Marie Ciasullo
William J. Sowder Award for Best Graduate Student Critical Paper
Melinda Spencer Kingsbury
Faculty Retirements
Valedictory
Joseph Gardner, John Greenway, Larry Swingle, Tom Reynolds
CELEBRATING CREATIVE WRITING AT UK:
A Half-Century of Excellence, 1947-2002
Readings
On Thursday, October 18, 2001, Bobbie Ann Mason, Wendell Berry, Ed McClanahan, Gurney Norman, and James Baker Hall read from their works in the U.K. Singletary Center Concert Hall. These writers are all former U.K. students who have been friends since the 1950s, but this was the first time they had appeared on the same program together. This event was part of the English Department's Celebration of Creative Writing.
Achievements
The year 2001 proved to be a memorable year in the University's Creative Writing Program.
Former UK student and English Professor Wendell Berry's new novel, Jayber Crow, was published spring to excellent reviews in major literary publications.
Poet Maurice Manning, who completed his MA in English at the University of Kentucky in 1993, was named Yale University's Younger Poet of The Year for his book of poems, Lawrence Booth's Book of Visions. The book was published in August of 2001 by Yale University Press.
The University's new Writer-In-Residence, Bobbie Ann Mason, has received high praise from reviewers for her new book of short stories, Zigzagging Down A Wild Trail, published by Random House.
In October 2001, former UK student and now a Professor of English, James Baker Hall's book of photographs, A Spring-Fed Pond, was released to coincide with the University Art Museum's exhibit of the photographs that appear in the book. His subjects are literary friends at different stages of life covering nearly half a century. The friends include Wendell Berry, Ed McClanahan, Gurney Norman, Bobbie Mason and Mary Ann Taylor-Hall.
A related event was the Summer 2001 publication of Home and Beyond, edited by Morris Grubbs, who recently completed his PhD in English at UK. Home and Beyond is a collection of short stories by Kentucky fiction writers, published by the University Press of Kentucky.
Events
Gurney Norman, the new Director of the Creative Writing Program at UK, decided that such a year called for a celebration. Thus was born a series of planned literary events titled CELEBRATING CREATIVE WRITING AT UK: A Half-Century of Excellence.
"While celebrating the present moment in creative writing at UK, we thought it would be good to call attention to our program's success since it began in 1947," said Norman. "There has always been a lively literary community at the University. Perhaps the most prominent former student before World War Two is novelist and critic Elizabeth Hardwick, who completed her undergraduate and MA degrees at UK in 1938 and 1939. But the modern program we enjoy today had its beginnings in 1947 when Lexington newspaper editor and fiction writer A.B. Guthrie Jr. started teaching courses in creative writing in UK's English Department." Guthrie's novel, The Way West, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1950. In addition to many other novels and short stories, Guthrie wrote the screenplay for the classic film, Shane.
To remind the University and the general public of Kentucky's outstanding literary tradition, the W. T. Young Library's Special Collections and Archives opened the doors to a major exhibit titled "Literary Kentucky" on September 10, 2001. Presented as part of the Creative Writing Celebration, the exhibit featured material items from selected Kentucky writers of the twentieth century. Manuscripts, notebooks, first editions and other materials from such Kentucky authors as Thomas Merton, Robert Penn Warren, Harriette Simpson Arnow, Alan Tate, Caroline Gordon, James Still, Jesse Stuart, James Lane Allen and John Fox Jr. were on display, along with several more contemporary writers.
The Celebration was sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of English. It was co-sponsored by UK's Appalachian Center and the Office of African American Student Affairs. The entire Celebration was made possible by Kip Cornett, whose generous gift to the Department of English supported the Department's Visiting Writers Series.
