Richard Jackson, UC & UTNAA Professor of English at UTC, has won the prestigious AWP (Associated Writing Programs) George Garret Award. Presented at the Annual AWP Conference in Chicago, this annual award is given to a nationally prominent writer who has contributed to the art.
Jackson, who has also taught at the Prague Summer Program, Iowa summer Programs and Vermont College of Fine Arts Program as well as programs across the country, has previously earned Guggenheim, Fulbright, NEA, NEH, and Witter-Bynner fellowships for writing. He has also received the Order of Freedom medal from the President of Slovenia for his Humanitarian and Literary work in the Balkans. A winner of a reader’s Choice award from Prairie Schooner Magazine, Crazyhorse and other journals, he was nominated for the Garret Award by numerous former students, colleagues and internationally known writers.
He has published nine books of poems, two anthologies of Slovene poetry, a critical book, several chapbooks of translations, and a book of interviews. His poems have been translated and published in 15 different languages and he has won five Pushcart prize appearances in the Pushcart Anthology, a Choice Award, and Agee Award, as well as Appearing in Best American Poets and the Pushcart Book of Poetry Anthology. He has also edited special sections of Poetry International and Hunger Mountain, and edits Poetry Miscellany and the PM East European Chapbook Series. He has also published nearly 100 reviews, essays and book introductions. A book of translations of the Italian poet, Pascoli and a book of his own poems, Resonance, are planned for publication in the next two years.
A winner of college and system teaching awards at UTC and the Vermont College of Fine Arts, Jackson has given more than 100 readings and workshops at universities here and abroad including Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Switzerland, Italy, Bosnia and Slovenia. Jackson’s poetry students have won numerous writing awards and published approximately 50 books, and many have won fellowships to the best MFA programs. The success of Jackson’s students has brought recognition of UTC’s Creative Writing Program as one of the top programs in the country. He founded the UTC Creative Writing Abroad Program 20 years ago which takes 10-15 students for three weeks a year to meet writers and students in Europe, a program he also adapted for Vermont College, and advised for several other national programs.
He founded and directs the bi-annual Meacham Writers’ Workshop which has achieved an international reputation for its teaching and its philosophy of a free and open conference where students, faculty and townspeople mix with internationally known writers. He is assisting UTC Professor Sybil Baker in founding an annual writers conference at UTC for high school, college, and graduate students as well as post-graduates, scheduled to begin next August.
Jackson joined the UTC faculty in 1976 after earning his Ph.D. at Yale, and teaches in the University Honors Program as well as the English Department. He is married to Teresa Harvey.
