FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For More Information Contact Connie Cross, director of public affairs (320) 363-5407
The College of Saint Benedict has received a grant of $325,000 from the Teagle Foundation to establish a literary center at CSB. The center will support four programs including the Writers Writing program, Reader's Theater, Inside Books: The CSB Publishing Institute and the First Book Writing Contest.
"This generous grant from the Teagle Foundation makes possible the extension of a legacy established many years ago by the former chair of our English department, S. Mariella Gable (d. 1987)," said CSB President Mary E. Lyons. "S. Mariella took risks, promoting student writers and encouraging aspiring authors. Her successors have a keen sense of what writers need and what writers want; they also know the energy and creativity generated by independent publishers and presses. This grant jump starts a renewed emphasis on the literary arts at the College of Saint Benedict, something for which students, faculty and lovers of literature can be grateful."
The concept of a literary center was formed in 1996, emerging out of a partnership with the Graywolf Press. Graywolf, located in St. Paul, Minn., provides CSB with an innovative partnership, combining talents and resources to provide in-depth experiences with leading writers for CSB students. The collaboration has brought several poets and writers to the CSB campus, including Patricia Hampl, Elizabeth Cox and Lucia Hodgson.
"The development of a literary center emerged out of this collaboration," said Mark Conway. "Today there are four literary activities in varying stages of development and funding. The formation of the College of Saint Benedict Literary Center and the four supporting programs will evolve over the next three years." Expanding on the success of the Graywolf collaboration, the Writer's Writing Program will bring working writers of the highest caliber to campus each year for readings, master classes and conferences with students. Poets as well as fiction and nonfiction authors will be included in literature and writing courses at the college. These visits would range from four days to two weeks.
The Reader's Theater Program will give advanced theater students and faculty the opportunity to perform a collection of short stories and a novella adapted from the existing text of two Graywolf writers. Students and faculty would work directly with the authors to complete an adaptation for voice that would be performed in schools around St. Cloud and in the Twin Cities.
Inside Books: The CSB Publishing Institute is a five to seven day program designed to attract recent graduates in the humanities, continuing-education students and mid-career professionals interested in exploring the field of literary publishing. The program, scheduled to premiere in July 2000, will introduce participants to independent, not-for-profit literary publishing as well as the larger publishing world.
The program will consist of two parts: a five-day introduction to publishing taught by professionals and a weekend event titled Bookjobs, which will include publishing and other careers with books. The program is designed to balance the particular expertise of publishers, libraries and book artists with a more general overview of these fields.
The literary center also intends to sponsor a First Book Writing Contest. Many such contests exist in fiction and poetry, however, the center would offer one of the first in non-fiction writing. As a prize, the winner would be granted book publication and potentially be given the opportunity to be in-residence at the college.
The College of Saint Benedict is a private, nationally recognized women's, residential, liberal arts, Catholic Benedictine college of 1,900 students, located in St. Joseph, Minn., joined in a coordinate mission with Saint John's University for men. As the only Catholic all-women's Baccalaureate I college, Saint Benedict's is unique in its commitment to gender-specific education within a coeducational environment.
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