The 2010-11 academic year was an exciting one for UNT-English. Dean Michael Monticino identified us as one of five departments in the College of Arts and Sciences with strong potential to move toward greater national prominence, and he backed up this designation in a number of ways, among them his support for our ongoing Creative Writing Initiative. The most important consequence of this initiative so far has been the hiring of prizewinning poet B. H. Fairchild – widely regarded as one of the best American poets living and working today – to a senior faculty position. In time, the Creative Writing Initiative will also include the creation of an annual $10,000 prize for poetry; the addition of a half-time creative writing staff assistant; and a five-year campaign to raise $1.5 million to establish an endowed chair.

     When I became department chair, I knew relatively little about our creative writing program. Now, after five years of observing workshops, reading my colleagues’ awe-inspiring teaching evaluations, and interacting with their wonderful students, I’ve developed a keen appreciation for the program’s value. Although few students in a typical undergraduate fiction or poetry workshop go on to become professional novelists or poets, the process of crafting written work, receiving critique from one’s peers and instructor, and critiquing one’s fellow students’ efforts cultivates crucial writing and critical thinking skills. Our faculty understand this well, and exert themselves just as hard to foster the biology, psychology, and business majors in their classes as they do the budding professional writers.

     Because it combines excellent undergraduate teaching, an amazingly talented, nationally recruited cohort of master’s and Ph.D. students, and a productive, prizewinning faculty, our creative writing program contributes significantly both to UNT’s drive to become a Tier-1 Research University and to its commitment to offer the best undergraduate programs in the State of Texas.

     For a detailed account of what our students and faculty were up to during the last academic year, please see our 2010-11 Newsletter. For information about the activities of alumni and friends of the department, see our Alumni Updates page. Our Support Our Programs page provides information about how you can support our creative writing program as well as other worthy endeavors, including the Scott Simpkins Memorial Scholarship and the Pearla Irene Marquez Memorial Scholarship.

     Best regards,

     David Holdeman, Professor and Chair