COLLOQUIUM
& READING SERIES FALL
2009
TO BE ANNOUNCED
(Colloquia and readings held Thursdays,
Kuykendall
410, 3-4:30pm.)
2009
AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS
Creative
Writing Awards
Ernest Hemingway
Prize
Awarded
to the most outstanding students in the
undergraduate creative writing program.
Fiction – Eleanor Svaton
Poetry – Chelsea Duarte
Myrle Clark Awards
Awarded
to outstanding undergraduate and Masters
students in the creative writing concentration.
Kelsie Abing
Jason Clement
Donovan Colleps*
Tania Fulks
Jonathan Larson*
Rei Mooney
Anjoli Roy
*With Distinction
Patsy Sumie Saiki Award
for Fiction
For best short story by a University of Hawai`i student.
1st Place – Keala Francis (Dickhens)
2nd Place – Kenneth Quilantang, Jr.
3rd Place – Che Ng
Learn more
about the English Department's Creative Writing
program on their website: <http://www.english.hawaii.edu/cw/>
Awards
for Academic Achievement
UHM Projects
in Arts & Humanities:
Gizelle Gajelonia, "Stop Requested: A Collection of Poems" (Susan
Schultz, Advisor)
UHM Proposals
for Senior Honors Projects
in Arts & Humanities:
Midori Hirai, "American Girls: A Fictional Look at Japanese American
Internment and Racial Profiling" (Erica Clayton, Advisor)
Congratulations
to all!
|
DEPARTMENT
NEWS
Witi Ihimaera, Citizens' Chair and Distinguished Visiting
Writer
for Spring 2009
Witi
Ihimaera became the first Maori novelist when he published
Tangi in 1973; that novel won the Wattie/Montana Book
of the Year Award in 1974, an award he won again with
The Matriarch, 1986 and Bulibasha, King of the Gypsies,
1994. He has published 11 novels thus far and is currently
finishing his 12th novel, The Trowenna Sea, which will
be published by Penguin in 2009. Ihimaera's hardworking
career as a writer, commentator and mentor for younger
writers continues to expand. His output includes 6 collections
of short stories, the latest of which is Ask The
Posts of the House, 2007. His next collection is Purity
of Ice, again to be published by Penguin in 2009. As well
he has had five opera and orchestral works produced for
stage, the play Woman Far Walking, 2000, a ballet entitled
The Wedding, 2005, two children's books and has edited
over 15 anthologies of Maori art, literature and culture.
His novel, The Whale Rider, 1987, was made into an internationally
acclaimed movie, Whale Rider, in 2003. His novels The
Uncle's Story, Nights In The Gardens of Spain, The Matriarch
and Bulibasha, King of the Gypsies, have all been optioned
for feature films and are in various phases of script
development; he wrote the screenplay for The Matriarch himself while at the Binger Filmlab, Amsterdam, in 2007
and will soon work with Andrew Adamson on a script based
on the life of Te Kooti Te Arikirangi. Another film is
being made from his short story "Medicine Woman" (from
Ask The Posts of the House) by acclaimed Mexican director
Dana Rotberg.
Ihimaera
is a Professor at the University of Auckland where he teaches
Creative Writing, New Zealand
and Pacific Literature.
Distinguished
Graduate Mentoring Award
 Emeritus
Professor Ian MacMillan received
the 2006 UHM Distinguished
Graduate Mentoring Award.
Ian
has taught in the UHM English Department's Creative
Writing Program since 1966. He is author of
seven novels and four short story collections,
has made over a hundred appearances in literary
and commercial magazines, and has won awards for
his short fiction including The Associated Writing
Programs Award, The O. Henry Award, Pushcart Prize,
and a Best American Short Stories Award. He received
the 1992 Hawai`i Award for Literature, and his
novel Village of a Million Spirits won
the 2000 PEN-USA-West Award for Fiction. Recent
novels include The Braid, published last
summer by Mutual Publishing, and The Seven
Orchids, out from Bamboo Ridge Press this
past March. Both books are set in Hawai`i.
The
mentoring award was established last year so that
current or former students could nominate their
faculty to recognize excellent mentoring – one
of the foundations of outstanding graduate education.
The UH Manoa Graduate Council selected MacMillan
from a pool of more than a dozen nominees.
“The
support and guidance of experienced, professional
teachers and scholars such as Professor MacMillan
are critical to the success of our students doing
graduate work,” said UH Manoa Chancellor Denise
Konan. “We applaud the Graduate Council’s
initiative in identifying outstanding faculty for
this annual recognition.”
A
letter of nomination for MacMillan said, “Ian
embodies all of the Council’s criteria. While
he continues to publish an unbroken stream of short
fiction and novels, he provides guidance to an astonishing
number of students who benefit from his artistic
discernment, conscientious instruction, and strong
advocacy. Each of us feels privileged to study with
a prolific, award-winning author who liberally shares
his time and expertise. In short, he actively helps
each student fulfill his potential as a writer by
devoting countless hours to reading manuscripts,
offering insightful advice, writing letters of recommendation,
and encouraging students toward publication.
Robert
Sullivan receives the UH Manoa Chancellor’s Citation
for Meritorious Teaching, 2008
Robert
Sullivan, an associate professor
of English, believes his role as a teacher is to guide
his students, and that “each student brings a wealth
of experiences, relationships and ideas to the classroom.”
Since he began at Manoa in 2003,
Sullivan feels his teaching is greatly helped by the practical
experiences he draws on as a widely published author and
editor in several genres, including creative non-fiction,
poetry and fiction.
One colleague noted that he is “an
inspired and captivating performer and teacher who has close
and charismatic rapport with his classes and audiences.”
Daphne
Desser, associate professor of English, won the award
in 2007. |
