Excellent News on the Writing Arts Scholarship Front
 
Despite the fact that Rowan University’s tuition increases over the past five years have been held below the national rate of inflation, the cost of higher education still is one of the biggest ticket items facing young adults today. The Writing Arts Department, however, has two updates that will help ease this burden:

• First, the family of the late Myra Schiffman Mederios has announced the scholarship named for the 2014 graduate of Rowan’s Master of Arts in Writing program has been fully endowed and will be presented annually in perpetuity. The Myra Schiffman-Bunya Sandler Memorial Fund offers a cash award to a Writing Arts graduate student each year to help her or him attend conferences and seek other professional development opportunities. Myra, a very popular creative writing student who died of cancer at age 61, was presented with her diploma in her hospital bed just three days before she died of cancer in March 2014. The award is co-named for Myra’s great aunt who died in the Holocaust.
• Next, Dean Sandy Tweedie is thrilled to report a successful kickoff to his College of Communication and Creative Arts Flying First Fund scholarship program. Enough money was pledged to the fund at this year’s “Rowan Gives Day” event in March to allow the program to start awarding scholarships to first-generation CCCA students this coming academic year. Dean Tweedie has pledged to contribute to the fund and match the donations of others until the scholarship is fully endowed.

FYWP Accepts Rowan’s Excellence In Teamwork Award
 
Nearly a score of colleagues from the Writing Arts Department’s First-Year Writing Program (FYWP) were on hand to receive one of just seven university Employee Recognition Awards presented for the 2017-2018 academic year. FYWP Coordinator Amy Woodworth accepted a plaque for the “Teamwork – Team Honor” award from President Ali Houshmand as part of Rowan’s annual Celebrating Excellence Awards ceremony and banquet at the Chamberlain Student Center. The award narrative says First-Year Writing teaches about 5,500 students each year who are “embarking on their academic writing careers.” While also mentioning Dr. Woodworth’s predecessor as coordinator, Erin Herberg, the program says “faculty in the First-Year Writing Program are on the front lines, so to speak, when it comes to supporting students. They are often among the first to notice under-performing students, those struggling to adjust to college-level work, or students in need of tutoring or academic services.” . . . Among other award winners at the event was Professor Gregory Biren from the School of Health Professions who took home the prestigious Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award. In his acceptance speech, Prof. Biren thanked his faculty colleagues for their support by saying the friendship permeating his department “creates a culture of learning and a culture of family.” (At the top, President Houshmand presents the Teamwork award to Dr. Woodworth and, below that, smiles abound after the banquet as Writing Arts colleagues gather for a team photo.)

Speaking of Winning and Recognition, Here are Two More
 

• Department Chair Jennifer Courtney will be enshrined as a member of the university’s Wall of Fame at a Chamberlain Student Center luncheon this Thursday, April 26. All members of last spring’s graduating class were asked to nominate and provide letters of support for professors and advisers who have had a “significant impact on the learning and overall development of students at Rowan.” Wall of Fame awards have been presented since 1997 and this year’s class contains 34 professors and advisers. The Wall of Fame website calls the award “a tremendous honor,” and those of us who work every day with Dr. Courtney know it’s an honor well-deserved.
• Writing Center Director Celeste DelRusso has been elected Vice President of the Mid-Atlantic Writing Center Association (MAWCA), which means -- upon the completion of her term as VP – she will ascend to the organization’s top job as president. This announcement is one more accolade in what has been an eventful semester for Dr. DelRusso; she was part of a Rowan Writing Arts team that presented in March at 4Cs in Kansas City, and then – with the help of her stellar Rowan Writing Center staff – she served as chair of the highly successful 2018 MAWCA Conference that was held here on campus in March.

Writing Arts Club Receives Charter; Announces New Board
 

• The student-run Rowan University Writing Arts Club (RUWAC) recently received word it has been granted an official student organization charter by the university’s Student Government Association (SGA). The Club was created in 2012 but started to work toward a charter just three years ago. This acknowledgment gives the RUWAC access to matching funds from the SGA, but also requires the Club to promote the values of volunteerism, dedication, community collaboration, leadership, and unity through its actions, events, and publications.
• The Club also has announced the members of its fall 2018-spring 2019 executive board. They are: English major Adam Schmidt as President and SGA Senator; Writing Arts major Justina Addice as Vice President and SUP representative; Communications Studies major Remy Desai-Patel as Secretary; Writing Arts/International Studies dual major Elizabeth Mosolovich as Treasurer; and Master of Arts in Writing student Sarah Knapp as Graduate Mentor.

 

Here’s A Trio Of Events To Add To Your Outlook Calendar
 

• The annual Master of Arts in Writing Symposium will be held on the nights of Tuesday, May 1, Wednesday, May 2, and Thursday, May 3 as this year’s 15 MAWR graduates present and defend their Master’s theses. Here’s the lineup for those three nights: Tuesday: Emily Severance, Tara O'Day, Emily Strauser, Elizabeth DiPietro, and Myriah Stubee; Wednesday: Rachel Carly, Alfred Dansbury, Jaymilynn Rogers, Mikaela Langdon, and Elyssa Finkelstein; Thursday: Tyler Riggs, Joe Magaletta, Karen Teller, Rachel Saltzman, and Kimberly Erskine.
• The format for Graduation Week has changed this year with the addition of a university-wide main event and keynote address on Sunday, May 6. Glassboro native and member of the Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles – Corey Clement – will speak at the Richard Wacker Stadium event scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. This year’s CCCA-specific ceremony, at which students have their names called and walk across the stage as family and faculty celebrate, will be 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 9 on the University Green.
• Final grades are due on Banner by the end of the day on Monday, May 14.

 

Do you have a new publication, a reading, or any other event of interest coming up? Please let me know so I can let all our colleagues know in the weekly Rowan Writing Arts Events Update newsletter. Stop by my Victoria 521 office or email me at royek@rowan.edu to give me the 4-1-1.
 
 
Stephen A. Royek, M.A.
Instructor, Writing Arts
Rowan University
2015 Rowan Medallion Award winner
     Phone: 856-906-4755
     Victoria Hall, Room 521
     Email: royek@rowan.edu 

Gess Award Winners Keep Denise’s Creative Spirit Alive
 
After receiving more than 100 entries across three categories, 14 students were selected as first-, second-, and third-place, and honorable mention winners in the 2018 Denise Gess Literary Awards competition. The biennial contest celebrates and commemorates the passion and energy Writing Arts professor Denise Gess brought to the classroom and to her published works. Denise passed in 2009 after sharing her light and vision with the Rowan community for five years.
First-place winners each received a $200 cash award with $100 going to the second-place finishers and $50 to those selected for third place. All students that were recognized had the opportunity to read selections of their work to the capacity crowd at the Rowan Art Gallery during the April 2 event.
-- First place in the Edward Czwartacki Award for Fiction category went to graduate student Tara O’Day for “When She Asks to Go Home,” while Daniel DeLuise won second place, Dylann Cohn-Emery third, and Daniel McGilloway received an honorable mention. Judges for the fiction award were Writing Arts faculty members Megan Atwood and Ed Briant.
-- Senior Morgan Douglas won first place in the Rowan University Award for Poetry competition for her collection “Red.” Second place went to Daniel McGilloway, third to Vasiliki Dinoulis and Tara Lonsdorf, Kylee Bagley, and Laura Kincaid were honorable mention recipients. Colleagues Joan Hanna and Bob Evans served as the poetry judges.
-- In the competition for the Pat B. Tweedie Award for Creative Nonfiction, freshman Alex Phillips won first place for “Caught in the Intersection,” while Rachel Barton was second and Emily Strauser finished third. Honorable mentions went to Alix McKinstry and Justina Addice. Judges in the creative nonfiction category were Writing Arts professors Lisa Jahn-Clough, who coordinated this year’s competition, and Tim Zatzariny, who also was a former student of Professor Gess.
The Writing Arts Department was honored to have four of Denise’s family members attend the ceremony (sitting in the front row from left to right, listening to Daniel DeLuise): Her sister Mary Tartaglione, her mother Mary Piccoli, her brother Joe Piccoli, and her sister-in-law Nancy Piccoli. In a note Events Updatereceived from her brother several days after the event, Joe thanked the Writing Arts Department for our “graciousness and hospitality.” “Hearing all of that young talent reading their work,” he said, “made me feel as if I was listening to Denise again. . . The kind words offered by so many on her behalf were a real comfort to all of us.”
 

​Coming Sunday: Iraqi Poet to Read at Avant Event
 
Stop by campus this Sunday, April 15 at 7 p.m. to hear Iraqi poet Faheela Hassan – “The Maya Angelou of Iraq” – present samples of her work in the Owl’s Nest restaurant at the Chamberlain Student Center in an event sponsored by Avant magazine. Hassan, a former refugee who now lives in the United States, is a poet, teacher, editor, writer, and playwright who has written a dozen books, three plays, and more than 50 short stories. For more information, contact Laura Kincaid, Avant editor-in-chief, at kincaidl6@students.rowan.edu.

A Look Back at the Student-Faculty Open Mic Event
 
More than a dozen students and faculty took part in the Spring 2018 Open Mic event at the Rowan Art Gallery on Wednesday, March 28. The reading was sponsored by the Writing Arts Department and Glassworks magazine; coordinated by faculty members Anthony Palma, Tim Donaldson, and Katie Budris; and moderated by graduate student Mikaela Langdon (at top). The evening featured works of both poetry and prose and spanned the emotional range from tear-invoking, to thought-provoking, to side-splittingly funny. The strong attendance at this event, and at a similar session last fall, may mean the Open Mic could make a regular appearance on the Rowan Writing Arts calendar going forward.

Coming in Next Week’s Rowan Writing Arts Events Update . . .
 
“It’s a major award,” Darren McGavin’s character exclaims in the movie “A Christmas Story,” and we’ll be crowing with equal pride next week as Events Update provides full coverage of the Celebrating Excellence Awards ceremony where the department’s First-Year Writing Program received the university’s 2017-18 Teamwork Award. We’ll also offer a Doodle Poll as we look to schedule a final social event of the school year sometime in the next few weeks.

Do you have a new publication, a reading, or any other event of interest coming up? Please let me know so I can let all our colleagues know in the weekly Rowan Writing Arts Events Update newsletter. Stop by my Victoria 521 office or email me at royek@rowan.edu to give me the 4-1-1.
 
Stephen A. Royek, M.A.
Lecturer, Writing Arts
Rowan University
2015 Rowan Medallion Award winner
     Phone: 856-906-4755
     Victoria Hall, Room 521
     Email: royek@rowan.edu 

Late Withdrawal Period Deadline Is This Coming Monday, April 9
 
We’re at the three-quarter pole of the semester, which means the Late Withdrawal deadline is upon us. Students who want to – or need to – withdraw from your classes have until 4:30 p.m. EDT this coming Monday, April 9, to submit the proper documentation with the Registrar’s Office. For a Late Withdrawal to be processed, the form must be completed and signed by the student and signed both by you and our Department Chair Jenn Courtney. Click here for a copy of the form. After Monday, we enter the Hardship Withdrawal Period during which all of the above requirements must be met in addition to a hardship letter from the student and the approval of our Dean Sandy Tweedie. The Hardship Withdrawal process requires students to meet one or more of the hardship categories listed on the separate Hardship Withdrawal Form along with appropriate supporting documentation. Please click here for more details, and for access to the special hardship withdrawal information. The email sent earlier this afternoon by Amy Woodworth has additional information on this process as well as details on the university’s new policy on grades of incomplete.

Don’t Forget To RSVP For Our First-Year Writing Program Celebration!
 
Our big day is a week away! Members of the First-Year Writing Program of the Writing Arts Department are being honored for winning the fourth-annual “2018 Rowan Values Team Award for Student Centeredness” next Thursday, April 12, at this year’s “Celebrating Excellence” reception. The festivities begin at 4:30 p.m. in the Eynon Ballroom of the Chamberlain Student Center and continue with dinner and the formal presentation. The FYWP team will be recognized for its “extraordinary efforts to support the values of the University" and President Ali Houshmand will be on hand to make the presentation. All program faculty should have received a personal invitation to the ceremony; if you didn’t receive one (or can’t find yours), contact Linda DiGennaro, Director of University Events, at digennaro@rowan.edu.
 

Coming In Next Week’s Rowan Writing Arts Events Update . . .
 
We’ll have complete coverage, with photos, of the 2018 Denise Gess Literary Awards ceremony and the Student-Faculty Open Mic event, along with all the usual updates and features you’ve come to expect from the RWAEU newsletter. Keep an eye out for the April 9, 2018 edition early next week!

Do you have a new publication, a reading, or any other event of interest coming up? Please let me know so I can let all our colleagues know in the weekly Rowan Writing Arts Events Update newsletter. Stop by my Victoria 521 office or email me at royek@rowan.edu to give me the 4-1-1.
 
Stephen A. Royek, M.A.
Lecturer, Writing Arts
Rowan University
2015 Rowan Medallion Award winner
     Phone: 856-906-4755
     Victoria Hall, Room 521
     Email: royek@rowan.edu