Poetry at an Uncouth Hour features group reading of Ginsberg's Howl
Stetson's Poetry at an Uncouth Hour will feature a group reading of Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems on Thursday, Oct. 20. English department assistant professor Joel Davis will be the VIP guest and will help kick off the reading.

The reading begins a year-long celebration of "Howl"'s 50th anniversary, and is one of the Howl Readings & Celebrations taking place across the country.

Faculty member's poem published in The New Republic
Poet Terri Witek has a poem in a recent issue of The New Republic. Witek is the Art and Melissa Sullivan Chair in Creative Writing, director of the Sullivan Creative Writing Program, and a professor of English.

"A Game for Those Abroad at Night" appears in the Books & the Arts section of the October 3, 2005 issue.

Creative writing faculty read from their work
Junior writing faculty Gail Radley and Andy Dehnart will join veteran professor Mike Raymond in a multi-genre showcase of recent work at the Sullivan Creative Writing Program's annual Fall Faculty Reading. It takes place Tuesday, Sept. 20, at 7 p.m. in the Stetson Room. A reception will follow in the Faculty Lounge.

Gail Radley will read from her work-in-progress, That Great Day, a children's novel dealing with the religious revival of the mid-1800's.

Mike Raymond will read the last short story from his collection entitled "Fathers and other Fictions." "Fences" is a story about a man who is forced to face his own aging and his unresolved conflicts when he meets his dead father in The Home Depot.

Andy Dehnart will read creative nonfiction about his interaction with Clay Aiken's devoted fans, an excerpt from a book-in-progress about our obsession with reality TV.

Stetson University endows Creative Writing Program with $3.5 million donation
A Stetson couple who have asked to remain anonymous are donating $3.5 million to Stetson University to endow its Creative Writing Program. University officials believe this is one of the largest endowments ever established for an undergraduate writing program in the United States.

Stetson President Doug Lee said the Creative Writing Program endowment will permanently fund 15 scholarships for creative writers, five creative writing courses each year and visits to campus by well-known writers, such as this spring’s lecturer, former U.S. poet laureate Mark Strand. It also enables the English Department to send students and faculty to writing conferences and to give creative writing awards to students each spring. Writing students can earn an academic minor through the program.

A capstone for the program will be an endowment for a distinguished chair in Creative Writing – the recipient of which will direct the program, Lee said. This is the second endowed chair established at Stetson this year. Poet Terri Witek, a faculty member in the English Department since 1989, has been selected as the first professor to hold the new Chair in Creative Writing.

For more information, read the full news release.

Poet Mark Strand to read from his work
Former United States Poet Laureate Mark Strand will read from his work on Thursday, Feb. 17. The reading will take place in the Stetson Room of the Carlton Union Building, and will be followed by a reception and book signing in the Faculty Lounge.

Strand "is the author of ten books of poems, including Blizzard of One (Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), which won the Pulitzer Prize; Dark Harbor (1993); The Continuous Life (1990); Selected Poems (1980); The Story of Our Lives (1973); and Reasons for Moving (1968)," according to the Academy of American Poets.

Strand's visit to Stetson is sponsored by the Tim Sullivan Endownment for Writing and the Stetson Artists and Lecturers Series.

Sullivan Endowment profiled
Stetson University's Tim Sullivan Endowment for Creative Writing was recently profiled on the university's web site as part of a series of Stetson Stories. Written by Sullivan scholar and English major Kaitlin Mondello, the piece, Sullivan endowment supports next generation of writers, examines the program and profiles one of its participants.

It explains how the program "was founded a decade ago by Palm Beach (Fla.) residents Art and Melissa Sullivan in hopes of establishing a program at Stetson University that would produce the next great generation of writers." Read more here.