ANGELINA DOHRE
Staff Writer
The Fall 2017 semester will see four Fredonia creative writing professors saying goodbye.
Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Dustin Parsons, Joshua Kalscheur and Eric Neuenfeldt will look to seek other opportunities at the end of this academic year, with the former two beginning appointments at the University of Mississippi. This leaves the creative writing program in search of a new team.
After finding out on March 7, Chairperson of the English Department Bruce Simon explained what will be left after the four professors leave. At the moment, the creative writing program will be left with no full-time faculty, one contingent faculty person and one tenure track professor. However, the one tenure track professor will be on family leave this Fall.
“We have two courses covered as far as we know right now,” Simon said. “You look at that and think, ‘How do you turn that challenge into an opportunity?’”
One of the approaches that was taken, according to Simon, was to look for multi-genre creative writers.
“If we get 50 or 100 applications, that’s great because then we get to pick the two people who would best work together and help us cover existing courses,” he said. “Maybe they can even develop courses in areas like screenwriting, game development or digital media.”
Currently, the program has not received permission to search for applicants yet. Once that occurs, the next step is to form a committee and work with Human Resources and the chief diversity officer to ensure a fair and transparent search.
According to Simon, a quick search for new creative writing professors is nothing new for the program.
“When we did this last Spring and Summer, we were able to finish by June,” he said. “People had time to prepare syllabi, move, and students knew who their professors would be in advance, so I expect we’ll be done by the end of June this year.”
Simon stated one of the department’s long-term goals was to consider a BFA in creative writing.
“The key question there has been if we can get the critical mass of faculty, students, administrative support and funding,” he said. “The second key question is if that will make us distinctive and really serve our graduates well.”
In an email sent out to creative writing students, Simon reassured there would still be a future for the minor. Required courses will still be offered next year and students’ graduation will not be delayed.
“Whenever faculty who have contributed so much to so many students’ lives and graduates’ careers leave Fredonia, it’s always a bittersweet time, but I do make a point to remind our students and alumni that the silver lining is that the Fredonia network — and yours — thereby expands,” he said.
Simon said he is confident in next semester’s creative writing program.
“Such talented, hard-working and unique writers and teachers as Aimee, Dustin, Eric and Josh are of course impossible to simply replace,” he said. “But I’m optimistic that, well before this August, we’ll have put together a team that will help make creative writing — and writing in general — stronger than ever at Fredonia.”