LATINO STUDIES AND CREATIVE WRITING PARTNER TO CONTINUE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY AT NOTRE DAME
The University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies (ILS), in close collaboration with Notre Dame’s Creative Writing Program, is pleased to announce the continuation of a two-year graduate assistantship for an incoming M.F.A. candidate in poetry beginning in the fall of 2016.
The recipient of the assistantship
will be selected from the pool of students admitted to the Creative Writing
Program by the M.F.A. poetry faculty, including Orlando Menes, ILS Fellow, and
Joyelle McSweeney, current director of the Creative Writing Program. The
selected candidate, in addition to the tuition waiver all admitted students
receive, will have a stipend for each of his/her two years in the program. The
selected poet will work with the ILS’ literary initiative, Letras Latinas.
"The Creative Writing Program's
dynamic partnership with Letras Latinas exemplifies our view
that activism, collaboration, publications and translation are all facets
of the writing life. We're delighted by this assistantship," said Joyelle
McSweeney, the current director of the program.
The selected candidate will succeed
current second-year M.F.A. candidate Ae Hee Lee (‘16), who has held the assistantship
since the Fall of 2014, and whose duties include creating
content for Letras Latinas Blog and assisting with an undergraduate
course on Latino/a poetry in the Fall.
"I have met many writers through
Letras Latinas. I’ve had the chance to interview some of them, and have shared
friendships and readings with others. This is why—as someone who was born in
South Korea but grew up in Peru—I have found this work of fostering fellowship
among Latino/a writers as something valuable and heartening. Assisting with a
course on Latino/a poetry has also been enriching. It provided pedagogical
tools that may serve me in the future. However, the true delight has been
witnessing students come into an awareness of U.S. Latino/a voices through
poetry and the beauty of words," said Lee.
The continuation of this stipend is
consistent with the ILS’ mission of providing funding opportunities to graduate
students in Latino Studies. "The Institute for
Latino Studies advances understanding of the fastest-growing and youngest
population in the United States and in the U.S. Catholic Church. Graduate
education is an essential component of this mission, as is our ILS literary
initiative, Letras Latinas. We are delighted to partner with the Creative
Writing Program in this important venture," said ILS co-directors Luis
Fraga and Timothy Matovina
Since its creation in 1999 the
Institute for Latino Studies has played a vital role in fostering understanding
of the U.S. Latino experience. Building upon the outstanding intellectual legacy
of Julian Samora, a pioneering Latino scholar and professor, the Institute
supports interdisciplinary initiatives in Latino Studies as a key component of
the University’s academic mission.
The Creative Writing Program is a
two-year course of study, culminating in a Master of Fine Arts in English. It
is a literary immersion program, inviting students to engage in the writing
life of the university by taking courses in literature, the writing of poetry
and/or fiction, and a wide range of electives suited to the particular interest
of the student. The writing life of the program also includes participating in
a range of editorial and/or teaching opportunities, as well as this Latino
Studies assistantship.
For further information contact:
Joyelle McSweeney,
Director of Creative Writing
