Creative Writing Appoints Faculty

Ever heard of Dog-Men? Want to learn about Jamaican culture? Want to write about both?

Starting next year Harvard students can, as the creative writing department plans to replace two departing lecturers with two authors from very different backgrounds.

Brad Watson, currently an instructor at the University of Alabama, and Patricia Powell, a lecturer at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, will join the creative writing department next fall as two of the University's four Briggs-Copeland lecturers.

Departing are Jill McCorkle, who had completed her five-year term as a lecturer, and Robert Cohen, who is leaving after his fourth year to accept a similar job at Middlebury College.

Briggs-Copeland lecturers serve five-year appointments, and do the bulk of their teaching in the creative writing department.

"These are five year appointments.... We have found it works better for creative writers that want to move in and out of teaching," said English Department Chair Leo Damrosch.

The search committee--composed of Damrosch, Porter University Professor Helen H. Vendler, Instructor in English and American Literature Nicholas Jenkins, Cohen, McCorkle and Briggs-Copeland lecturers Natalie L. Kusz and Henri Cole--conducted an extensive search before narrowing the list to eight. The eight finalists were interviewed and their work was read before the final two were selected.

Powell, who is a native of Jamaica, has just received tenure after her sixth year at UMass-Boston, and is taking a leave of absence, according to Martha Collins, director of the school's Creative Writing Program.

Powell began her first novel, "Me Dying Trial," when she was an undergraduate at Wellesley College, and began her second, "A Small Gathering of Bones," while working towards a master of fine arts at Brown.

Her first novel is the story of a Jamaican woman's journey to the United States with her daughter, her second the story of a gay male with AIDS in Jamaica, and her third (in progress) the portrait of a Chinese immigrant who moves to Jamaica.

"One of the things that is interesting about her writing is she keeps pushing herself away from her own situation, taking more risks," said UMass-Boston's Collins.

Harvard's Jenkins called "A Small Gathering of Bones," a subtle exploration of the issue of AIDS in Jamaica.

"Although the issue of AIDS is central to the novel, 'A Small Gathering of Bones' is not a polemical or sloganeering statement but a complex and lyrical exploration of the effects of the disease on a whole community."

Jenkins said Powell's fiction was refreshing.

"In her classes she uses a lot of experimental fiction from Europe, and so offers to her students a much broader, more exciting range of fictional possibilities, rather than simply the default style of staple Kmart realism used in many creative writing courses across the country," Jenkins said.

Powell could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Watson said he could not pass up the chance to come to Harvard.

"It is one of the more attractive jobs in the country," he said. "It gives you an opportunity to work with undergrads, to teach writing exclusively," said Watson.

In particular he cited the chance to work with other Harvard creative writers and the reduced teaching load as reasons for his interest in the job.

Emily Davidson, a sophomore at the University of Alabama who has taken all of her English courses from Watson, said he introduced her to a variety of short story writers and was "immensely" helpful as a writing teacher.

"He is a super super super guy," she said. "I had a meeting with him this afternoon and he told me to write a novel just for fun. That's the type of guy he is."

Watson received a bachelor's in English from Mississippi State University and a masters of fine arts from the University of Alabama.

Watson has written a book of short stories, "Last of the DogMen," which won the Sue Kaufman prize for first fiction from the Academy of Arts and Letters.

Watson said the book, which is unified by the theme of dogs, centers on the "idea that there is gray area in human beings between the wild and the civilized."

Jenkins called Watson's short story "Seeing Eye"--written through the perspective of a guide dog waiting to cross a street--"wonderfully beguiling."

"The dog stands in for the missing organ of perception, the eye," he said. "The dog has become the means by which this human perceives the world--and conversely in this story the dog also seems to have acquired a kind of human consciousness. It is like the dog has become part human and the human has become part animal.

Powell, who is a native of Jamaica, has just received tenure after her sixth year at UMass-Boston, and is taking a leave of absence, according to Martha Collins, director of the school's Creative Writing Program.

Powell began her first novel, "Me Dying Trial," when she was an undergraduate at Wellesley College, and began her second, "A Small Gathering of Bones," while working towards a master of fine arts at Brown.

Her first novel is the story of a Jamaican woman's journey to the United States with her daughter, her second the story of a gay male with AIDS in Jamaica, and her third (in progress) the portrait of a Chinese immigrant who moves to Jamaica.

"One of the things that is interesting about her writing is she keeps pushing herself away from her own situation, taking more risks," said UMass-Boston's Collins.

Harvard's Jenkins called "A Small Gathering of Bones," a subtle exploration of the issue of AIDS in Jamaica.

"Although the issue of AIDS is central to the novel, 'A Small Gathering of Bones' is not a polemical or sloganeering statement but a complex and lyrical exploration of the effects of the disease on a whole community."

Jenkins said Powell's fiction was refreshing.

"In her classes she uses a lot of experimental fiction from Europe, and so offers to her students a much broader, more exciting range of fictional possibilities, rather than simply the default style of staple Kmart realism used in many creative writing courses across the country," Jenkins said.

Powell could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Watson said he could not pass up the chance to come to Harvard.

"It is one of the more attractive jobs in the country," he said. "It gives you an opportunity to work with undergrads, to teach writing exclusively," said Watson.

In particular he cited the chance to work with other Harvard creative writers and the reduced teaching load as reasons for his interest in the job.

Emily Davidson, a sophomore at the University of Alabama who has taken all of her English courses from Watson, said he introduced her to a variety of short story writers and was "immensely" helpful as a writing teacher.

"He is a super super super guy," she said. "I had a meeting with him this afternoon and he told me to write a novel just for fun. That's the type of guy he is."

Watson received a bachelor's in English from Mississippi State University and a masters of fine arts from the University of Alabama.

Watson has written a book of short stories, "Last of the DogMen," which won the Sue Kaufman prize for first fiction from the Academy of Arts and Letters.

Watson said the book, which is unified by the theme of dogs, centers on the "idea that there is gray area in human beings between the wild and the civilized."

Jenkins called Watson's short story "Seeing Eye"--written through the perspective of a guide dog waiting to cross a street--"wonderfully beguiling."

"The dog stands in for the missing organ of perception, the eye," he said. "The dog has become the means by which this human perceives the world--and conversely in this story the dog also seems to have acquired a kind of human consciousness. It is like the dog has become part human and the human has become part animal.