Claudia Emerson, Arrington Distinguished Chair in Poetry, is featured in the Tuesday, March 20 edition of The Paris Review. The article, “Two Poets,” retells the author’s encounters with Emerson and includes excerpts from “Secure the Shadow.”
Associate Professor of English Eric Lorentzen’s article “Dickens at 200: Still Relevant After All These Years” has been picked up by the McClatchy-Tribune newswire and has appeared in numerous publications, including McClatchy D.C., the Sacramento Bee, the Bradenton Herald (Fla.) and the Bellingham Herald (Wash.).
The piece, originally published in The Free Lance-Star on Sunday, Feb. 5, explores the enduring relevance of Dickens’ work in light of the bicentennial of his birth.
Assistant Professor of English Colin Rafferty’s creative nonfiction piece “Digging In” is featured in the Winter 2012 edition of The Baltimore Review.
UMW’s Arrington Poet-in-Residence Allison Seay ’02 has received the 2012 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry.
The award is a collaboration between Persea Books and the Lexi Rudnitsky Poetry Project to sponsor the annual publication of a poetry collection by an American woman poet who has yet to publish a full-length book of poems. The winner receives an advance of $1,000 and publication of her collection by Persea Books. Seay won the prize for her collection of poetry, “To See the Queen,” scheduled for publication in April 2013.
As the Arrington Poet-in-Residence, Seay teaches the advanced poetry workshop and the creative writing seminar in poetry at Mary Washington. A Midlothian, Va., native, she is the recipient of the 2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship, one of the largest awards offered to aspiring poets in the United States, and two fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, including Poetry, Crazyhorse and The Southern Review.
For more information, read the full news release from January 25.
Helen Alston of Charlottesville, Va., has been selected to receive the Barbara Thomas Phillips Creative Writing Scholarship for the spring semester of 2012 at UMW. The scholarship is awarded annually to a junior or senior exhibiting excellence in writing.
A senior majoring in English with a concentration in creative writing, Alston is poetry editor of the Aubade, the university’s biannual literary magazine. She also is president of the UMW Hand Percussion Club and a tutor at the Fredericksburg campus Writing Center. Alston has been an orientation leader and has been named to the Dean’s List.
