VCU news

By Tom Gresham

Kathleen Graber, assistant professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University, has been named a 2012 recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, one of the top awards available to artists in the United States and Canada.

Graber, who teaches in the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English in the College of Humanities & Sciences at VCU, received the honor in the Poetry category. Graber is the author of two collections of poetry, “Correspondence,” which was published in 2006, and “The Eternal City,” which was published in 2010. “The Eternal City” was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and it was the winner of the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Poetry. She is currently working on a new collection of poems, tentatively titled “The River Twice.”

“We’re very proud of Professor Graber for earning this prestigious honor,” said VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D. “Her poetry continues to attract attention from the highest ranks and represents the excellence of VCU’s faculty among their national and international peers.”

Jim Coleman, Ph.D., dean of the VCU College of Humanities & Sciences, said, "VCU's Creative Writing Program is nationally and internationally recognized for the creative work of its faculty and students, and I am impressed by the enthusiasm of the students in the program and their academic engagement with their professors. This well-deserved award for Professor Graber confirms my belief that we have some of the best faculty and one of the strongest creative writing programs in the country."

Nine VCU professors and alumni have received Guggenheim Fellowships in the past 10 years, including Graber’s creative writing colleague, David Wojahn, who received a Guggenheim in 2003. Other previous recipients since 2002 with VCU ties include Elizabeth King, a professor of sculpture (2002); Teresita Fernandez (2003) and Bonnie Collura (2005), both alumni of the sculpture department; Hilary Wilder, assistant professor in the Department of Painting and Printmaking (2006); Michael Jones McKean, assistant professor of sculpture (2010); Corin Hewitt, assistant professor of sculpture (2011); and Stephen Vitiello, associate professor of kinetic imaging (2011).

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded 181 fellowships this month to artists, scientists and scholars. The foundation received almost 3,000 applications for the awards. Fellows receive grants of varying amounts that provide financial support for a period of between six and 12 months. The financial awards are intended to allow fellows to work with as much creative freedom as possible. Fellowships are awarded to men and women who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.