AWP Board Members

Board Member Bios & Committees

Board Member Bios

Ron Tanner, President, Northeast Representative Loyola College Ron Tanner has published stories and essays in such magazines as The Iowa Review, West Branch, and the Massachusetts Review, and has won many awards, including a Faulkner Society gold medal and a Pushcart Prize. In 2008, he received a Best of the Web award and a Story South Million Writers award for fiction. His collection of stories, A Bed of Nails, won both the G.S. Sharat Chandra Award and the Towson Prize for Literature and is now in its second printing. He teaches writing at Loyola University, in Baltimore, Maryland.

 

Dinty W. Moore, Vice President, Individual Membership Representative Ohio University Dinty W. Moore is Professor of English at Ohio University and a low-residency instructor for the University of New Orleans' San Miguel de Allende Summer Writing Workshops.  He has published three books of creative nonfiction, Between Panic and Desire, The Accidental Buddhist and The Emperor's Virtual Clothes, a short story collection, Toothpick Men, and the textbook, The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction. His essays and stories have been published in The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, Harpers, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Utne Reader, Arts & Letters, and Crazyhorse, among others.  He also edits Brevity, the on-line journal of concise creative nonfiction.  He is a recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

 

Denise Low-Weso, Vice President, Individual Members' Representative Haskell Indian Nations Denise Low is the author of a collection of essays, Words of a Prairie Alchemist, and two collections of poems, Thailand Journal and New & Selected Poems, 1980-1999. She edited Wakarusa Wetlands in Word & Image for the Lawrence Arts Center’s Imagination & Place Committee. In 2004, she was the guest co-editor of Teaching Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, a special issue of the American Indian Culture and Research Journal, UCLA, 28.1. Her articles, essays, and reviews of American Indian literature appear in Studies in American Indian Literature, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, American Indian Quarterly, Midwest Quarterly, Kansas City Star, and others. Denise Low is a member of the Prairie Writers Circle of The Land Institute and the chair of the English Department at Haskell Indian Nations University, where she also teaches creative writing and American Indian Studies courses.

 

Terry Blackhawk, Treasurer, Individual Members' Representative InsideOut Literary Arts Project Terry Blackhawk is the author of three collections of poems—Body & Field, Escape Artist, and The Dropped Hand; two chapbooks (including a Greatest Hits from Pudding House Press); and poems and essays featured in anthologies from Teachers & Writers Collaborative and elsewhere. Her honors include the Foley Poetry Award, a National Endowment for the Humanities Teacher-Scholar Award, the Michigan Governors' Award in Arts Education, four Pushcart Prize nominations, and a Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs Artist-in-Residence grant. Terry Blackhawk is the Executive Director and founder of InsideOut Literary Arts Project, a writers-in-schools program serving students in Detroit's public schools.

 

Donald Morrill, Secretary, Southeast Representative University of Tampa Donald Morrill is the author of two volumes of poetry, At the Bottom of the Sky and With Your Back to Half the Day, as well as three books of nonfiction, The Untouched Minutes (winner of the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Award), Sounding for Cool, and A Stranger's Neighborhood. He has served as a foreign expert at Jilin University, Peoples Republic of China, and as a Fulbright Lecturer in American Literature at the University of Lodz, Poland. Recently, he was the Bedell Visiting Writer in the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa. For many years, he directed the Writers at the University series at the University of Tampa, and has been a poetry editor of Tampa Review and the University of Tampa Press Poetry Series. Currently, he is Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Tampa.

 

Francisco Aragón, Individual Members' Representative Institute for Latino Studies, University of Notre Dame Francisco Aragón is the author of Puerta del Sol and the Editor of an anthology, The Wind Shifts: The New Latino Poetry. His poems have appeared in a range of anthologies, including: Inventions of Farewell: A Book of Elegies; American Diaspora: Poetry of Displacement; Bend, Don’t Shatter; Evensong: American Poets on Spirituality; and Deep Travel: Contemporary Poets Abroad. In the area of literary translation, he has published a number of books, including three by Francisco X. Alarcon: Body in Flames, Of Dark Love, and Sonnets to Madness and other Misfortunes. His limited edition chapbooks include Tertulia and Light, Yogurt, Strawberry Milk. His honors include an Academy of American Poets Prize and an AWP Intro Journals Project Award. Francisco Aragón is currently the Director of Letras Latinas, the literary program of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where he oversees, among other projects, Momotombo Press.

 

Steve Heller, Pacific West Representative Antioch University Steve Heller is Professor & Chair of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Antioch University Los Angeles. Prior to L.A., he taught at Kansas State University for 22 years, including 15 as Chair of the Creative Writing Program. He holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University and an EdD in English Education from Oklahoma State. His first novel, The Automotive History of Lucky Kellerman, received the Friends of American Writers Award and was a selection of Book-of-the-Month Club and QPB. Heller's individual short stories and essays have appeared widely in journals such as Manoa, New Letters, Colorado Review, and Fourth Genre, and have been reprinted in anthologies such as Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, In Brief: Short Takes on the Personal, and Living Blue in the Red States. He has been a resident of Yaddo and the recipient of an NEA Fellowship Grant and numerous other writing awards and distinctions. He helped found two literary journals, Hawai'i Review and Mid-American Review.

 

Kathryn Kysar, Individual Membership Representative Anoka-Ramsey Community College Kathryn Kysar is the author of a book of poetry Dark Lake and the editor of a collection of essays, Riding Shotgun:  Women Writing about Their Mothers.  Her poems have been heard on A Writer's Almanac  and published in many literary magazines including Great River Review, Midland Review, Mizna, Painted Bride Quarterly, and The Talking Stick.  A winner of the Lake Superior Writer's and SASE  poetry contests, Kysar has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities,  Norcroft, The Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, and Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts.

 

Roger Lathbury, AWP/GMU Liaison George Mason University Roger Lathbury teaches at George Mason University & he is the publisher of Orchises Press.

 

Richard Robbins, Midwest Representative Minnesota State University Richard Robbins studied as an undergraduate at San Diego State University and as a graduate student at the University of Montana. His first collection, The Invisible Wedding, was published by the University of Missouri Press in 1984 as part of its Breakthrough Series. His second book of poems, Famous Persons We Have Known, was published in 2000 by Eastern Washington University Press. The Untested Hand, his third book, was released in 2008 by The Backwaters Press, and a fourth, Other Americas, is due out in 2009 from Blueroad Press. Over the years, he’s received various awards and fellowships, including those from The Loft and the McKnight Foundation, The Minnesota State Arts Board, The Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers, The National Endowment for the Arts, and The Poetry Society of America. He currently directs the creative writing program and Good Thunder Reading Series at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

 

Jerod Santek, WC&C Representative Loft Literary Center Jerod Santek is Program Director at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, where he administers mentorships, grants, and fellowships for writers. A poet and fiction writer, his work has appeared in numerous journals including Ploughshares, Blithe House Quarterly, and Hayden's Ferry Review.

 

Luci Tapahonso, West Representative University of Arizona Luci Tapahonsois Diné (Navajo) and a Professor of English and American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She is author of six books of poetry; of which the most recent is A Radiant Curve (University of Arizona Press). She is a recipient of a number of awards, including the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Circle of Writers. She also delivered the 2007 Walter Capps Lecture at the National Federation of the State Humanities Councils.

 

Katherine M. Turner, Appointed Board Member Katherine M. Turner was admitted to bar, 2005, New York; 2006, District of Columbia; U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit; U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan. She was educated at Georgetown University (B.A., summa cum laude, 2001); Harvard Law School (J.D., cum laude, 2004). Phi Beta Kappa. Primary Editing Chair, Harvard Law Review. Law Clerk to the Hon. Bruce M. Selya, U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit, 2004-2005. She is a member of the New York State Bar Association; American Bar Association.

Committees

2010 Conference
Denise Low-Weso, Chair
Kathryn Kysar
Dinty Moore
Francisco Aragón
Donald Morrill
Ron Tanner
U. of Denver
David Fenza (staff)
Matt Burriesci (staff)

2011 Conference
Francisco Aragón, Chair
Matt Burriesci (staff)
Alan Cheuse
Charles Jensen
Kathryn Kysar
Denise Low-Weso
E. Ethelbert Miller
Dinty W. Moore
Ron Tanner
Christian Teresi (staff)

Development
Kathryn Kysar, Chair
Richard Robbins
Terry Blackhawk
David Fenza (staff)
Matt Burriesci (staff)

Finance
Terry Blackhawk, Chair
Katherine Turner
Roger Lathbury
David Fenza (staff)
Matt Burriesci (staff)
Josh Baugher (staff)

Membership
Ron Tanner, Chair
Jerod Santek
Steve Heller
Kate Kysar
Terry Ryan (staff)

Nominations and Documents
Donald Morrill, Chair
Katherine Turner
Luci Tapahonso

Pedagogy
Steve Heller, Chair
Richard Robbins
Kathryn Kysar

Personnel
Ron Tanner, Chair
Donald Morrill
Roger Lathbury

Professional Standards
Richard Robbins, Chair
Luci Tapahonso
Ron Tanner
Steve Heller
Donald Morrill

Publications
Roger Lathbury, Chair
Dinty Moore
Jerod Santek
Richard Robbins
Supriya Bhatnagar (staff)

Strategic Planning
Ron Tanner, Chair
Dinty Moore
Denise Low-Weso
Donald Morrill
Francisco Aragón
David Fenza (staff)
Matt Burriesci (staff)

Task Force on Inclusivity
Francisco Aragón, Chair
Luci Tapahonso
Terry Blackhawk
Jerod Santek

Back to Top