Rayburn and Nancy Spann Watkins Endowed Visiting Professorship
Dale Ray Phillips occupied the Rayburn and Nancy Spann Watkins Endowed Visiting Professorship during 08-09. In the Department of English and Philosophy, the Regional University Endowment Trust Fund primarily funds the Nancy and Rayburn Watkins Endowed Professorship in Creative Writing, which brings a visiting writer to campus for one to two years. Bringing prominent authors to campus to teach exposes students to writers in different phases of their literary careers, writers who frequently are independent of the academy. Having the opportunity to be mentored by actual practitioners encourages the aspiring writers in the undergraduate creative writing program and provides publishing advice for those in the graduate program. The Watkins Professorship has been in place since 2004, and has resulted in three excellent writers’ appointments as visiting professors. After a national search, Dale Ray Phillips was selected for the position. His most recent book, a collection of short stories entitled My People’s Waltz, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2000, and the book also received a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice Pick. While at MSU, Mr. Phillips has published three stories, including a 2008-09 entry in Grit Lit: A Rough South Reader, and the biographical notes mention MSU. During 2008, Mr. Phillips also gave two public readings. While on campus, Mr. Phillips taught in the M.F.A. summer and winter residencies and helped recruit for the M.F.A. program.
Having additional funding support to bring these writers to campus as faculty has helped the Department of English and Philosophy to continue its excellent undergraduate program in creative writing while building the low-residency M.F.A. program, which saw its first graduate in May 2007. The number of M.F.A. students actively enrolled has increased from 22 in 2006 to 41 in Spring 2009, and 39 students attended the Summer 2009 residency. The program has also added a new genre, writing for young people, to the previous poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction options. Enrollment in the undergraduate creative writing major/area totaled 66 in 2008-09. Additionally, 17 students had a minor in creative writing in Fall 2008, and 18 in Spring 2009. The Watkins Endowed Professorship enables the department to have a variety of creative writing course offerings and to recruit gifted, creative students. The M.F.A. program has also benefited from the status that the endowed professorship brings to the MSU faculty.
Thanks to Watkins funding, six faculty members and over 60 students, both graduate and undergraduate, were able to attend the Associated Writing Programs (AWP) annual conference in Chicago, where they had the opportunity to talk to writers; attend readings, creative writing sessions, and pedagogy workshops; publicize MSU’s literary journal New Madrid; and receive advice about the job market. These experiences were invaluable for MSU’s creative writing students. In addition, this year the MSU M.F.A. program served as a major sponsor of the AWP conference, bringing nationwide recognition to our creative writing program.
As part of its community outreach endeavors, the department has invited the public to the MSU Reading Series events and the readings for the M.F.A residencies. The Watkins Professor gives a reading as part of the reading series, which is organized by the Wylder Center for the Literary Arts (housed in the Department of English and Philosophy). Plans for expanding this center to offer a writing program in area public schools are being explored.
Additional accomplishments of the creative writing programs at MSU include
the success of MSU’s national literary magazine, New Madrid, edited
by MSU faculty member Ann Neelon. This publication continues to receive positive
critical attention. Other recent feats include publication of the novel King
of Gaheena (Motes Press, Louisville, 2008) by M.F.A. Program Director Squire
Babcock, acceptance of faculty member Holly Goddard Jones’s short-story
collection Girl Trouble by Harper-Collins, and acceptance of Visiting Poet
Nicky Beer’s collection The Diminishing House by Carnegie-Mellon Press.
Prof. Beer was also honored with a prestigious Ruth Lily Fellowship from
the Poetry Foundation, which carries an accompanying $15,000 award. Poet
Ann Neelon was honored as the Loman C. Trover Writer at Madisonville Community
College, where she gave a reading and was interviewed by that institution’s
literary journal, The Gadfly. Prof. Neelon also presented at the South Atlantic
Modern Language Association meeting and served as a judge at the Metrouniversity
writing competition in Louisville. Poet Brian Barker gave readings in Starkville,
MS and Hopkinsville, KY, as well as submitting several poems for publication.
Our creative writing program continues to grow and prosper, and a key factor
in that growth is continuing support from the Watkins Endowed Visiting Professorship.