By Zoe Roos Scheuerman ’24
This academic year, award-winning author and Creative Writing Professor Michael Prior has been in New York City as a fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. There, he is working on a new poetry collection which, as described on the New York Public Library’s webpage about the fellowship, “explores intergenerational memory and the incarceration of Japanese Canadians and Japanese Americans during the Second World War.” The Words reached out to Professor Prior about his experience with the fellowship so far. This is what he had to say:
I’ve had a wonderful time at the Cullman Center. I am so grateful for its wonderful director, Martha Hodes, and all the other fellows, whose work—ranging from biographies to novels to histories—has been incredibly inspiring. Recently, I have been spending a lot of my time in the library’s Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs examining Japanese woodblock prints designed by artists like Hiroshige and Hokusai. I’ve also been researching Japanese American and Japanese Canadian visual artists in the 20th century, with a particular emphasis on those who have responded in their work to their communities’ wartime incarceration. I thought my fellowship year would be less busy than a regular semester at Mac, but that hasn’t proven to be the case: in addition to my work at the library, I’ve judged a few poetry contests, given a reading for the Lannan Foundation, and am currently the virtual writer-in-residence for North Carolina State’s MFA program this spring. I’ve also been fortunate enough to publish some new poems in magazines! I’m thankful for all my colleagues in the English Department, who have been so supportive of this fellowship and my time away. I’m looking forward to returning to Macalester next fall and being in the classroom again.
Sending my best!
Sincerely,
Michael
We’re looking forward to seeing Michael next fall, too! The Words staff wishes him the best of luck during the rest of his fellowship.