March 26, 2009
UHON Student LaShunda Hill
Wins Truman Scholarship
Congratulations to UHON senior
LaShunda Hill, who has been named a Harry S. Truman Scholar for 2009,
one of only 60 students selected nationwide and the only one from
Tennessee. See her profile and the
university's press
release for more about her many impressive accomplishments. More
information about the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation can be
found at http://www.truman.gov/.
January 6, 2009
Professor Rick Jackson Receives National Award
Richard Jackson, UTNAA Professor of English at
UTC, has won the prestigious AWP (Associated Writing Programs) George
Garret Award. The award is given once a year to a nationally prominent
writer who has contributed to the art and will be presented at the
Annual AWP Conference in Chicago.
Jackson, who has also taught at the Prague Summer
Program, Iowa summer Programs and Vermont College of Fine Arts Program,
as well as programs across the country, has previously earned
Guggenheim, Fulbright, NEA, NEH, and Witter-Bynner fellowships for
writing. He has also received the Order of Freedom medal from the
President of Slovenia for his Humanitarian and Literary work in the
Balkans. A winner of a reader's Choice award from Prairie Schooner
Magazine, Crazyhorse and other journals, he was nominated for
the Garret Award by numerous former students, colleagues and
internationally known writers.
He has published 9 books of poems, two anthologies
of Slovene poetry, a critical book, several chapbooks of translations,
and a book of interviews. His poems have been translated and published
in 15 different languages and he has won 5 Pushcart prize appearances
in the Pushcart Anthology, a Choice Award, and Agee Award, as
well as Appearing in Best American Poets and the
Pushcart Book of Poetry Anthology. He has also edited special
sections of Poetry International and Hunger
Mountain, and edits Poetry Miscellany and the PM East
European Chapbook Series. He has also published nearly 100 reviews,
essays and book introductions. A book of translations of the Italian
poet, Pascoli and a book of his own poems, Resonance, will
appear in the next two years.
A winner of college and system teaching awards at
UTC and the Vermont College of Fine Arts, he has given about 100
readings and workshops and universities here and abroad including
Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Switzerland, Italy, Bosnia
and Slovenia. Jackson's poetry students have won numerous awards: they
have published around 50 books, and 100% of his UTC Students have won
fellowships to the best MFA programs in the country, a record no other
program can equal, and which helps rank UTC's Creative Writing Program
as one of the top couple of programs in the country. He founded the UTC
Creative Writing Abroad Program 20 years ago which takes 10-15 students
for three weeks a year to meet writers and students in Europe, a
program he also adapted for Vermont College, and advised for several
other national programs.
He founded and directs the bi-annual Meacham
Writers' Workshop which has achieved an international reputation for
its teaching and its philosophy of a free and open conference where
students, faculty and townspeople mix with internationally known
writers. He is assisting UTC Prof. Sybil Baker in founding an annual
writers conference at UTC for high school, college, and graduate
students as well as post-graduates next August.
Jackson joined the UTC faculty in 1976 after
earning his PhD at Yale, and teaches in the University Honors Program
as well as the English Department. He is married to Teresa Harvey.
