$900,000 Creative Writing Endowment Is Awarded to Brooklyn College

Spotlight Archive

March 23, 1999
$900,000 Creative Writing Endowment Is Awarded to Brooklyn College
Esteemed Poet Ron Padgett Is First Visiting Professor

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Alice Newcomb-Doyle (718) 951-5882

Brooklyn, NY -Ron Padgett, poet, writer, and author of several acclaimed books, most recently New and Selected Poems (David R. Godine, 1995), is serving as the first Donald I. Fine Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Brooklyn College for the spring 1999 semester.

Mr. Padgett, a senior lecturer at Columbia University, has received a Fulbright Grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for translation.

The visiting professorship was established through a bequest of $900,000 from Donald I. Fine, the late founder of Arbor House Publishing.

Mr. Fine, who also headed his own publishing firm, published books by such best-selling authors as Ken Follett and Elmore Leonard. He was also the publisher of three novels written by Anthony Mancini, who teaches in the college's journalism program. Mr. Fine often spoke with Mr. Mancini regarding the writing programs at Brooklyn College.

The endowment enables the college to supplement the salary of a professor in the creative writing program or to invite a visiting professor.

"Mr. Fine's very generous endowment is a wonderful tribute to the English Department," said Herbert Perluck, chairperson of the department and head of the selection committee. "We intend to attract many more exemplary writers such as Mr. Padgett, in order to ensure that this program continues to thrive."

The Department of English offers bachelor's and master's degree programs in creative writing with concentrations in fiction, poetry, and playwriting.

Scholarships, endowments, and professorships are administered by The Brooklyn College Foundation, Inc. The foundation raises funds to encourage and promote the academic purposes of Brooklyn College and the educational welfare of its students.