EUGENE–Shelly Withrow and Debra Gwartney, both faculty members in University of Oregon’s Creative Writing Program, will give a joint reading on Thursday, April 26, as part of the Creative Writing Program Reading Series.

The reading, free and open to the public, will begin at 8 p.m. in the Alumni Lounge of Gerlinger Hall, 1468 University St.

Withrow, a visiting assistant professor in the program’s acclaimed poetry program, has served this year as the director of the Kidd Tutorial Program for undergraduates. Endowed with a $1.4 million gift from Walter and Nancy Kidd, the program offers an intensive one-year study in critical thinking and writing skills.

Withrow also teaches advanced poetry courses and has published her own work in such journals as Black Warrior Review, Hubbub and Orion Afield. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from the UO Creative Writing Program–where she helped establish the first Kidd Tutorial courses–and her doctoral degree from the University of Houston.

She is the winner of the Rebecca and John Moores Fellowship, the Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Houston and the Sarah B. Day Scholarship.

Withrow’s poems have been recognized with an individual artist grant from the Cultural Arts Council of Houston and by residencies at the Hedgebrook and Djerassi writing colonies.

Gwartney, who earned her master’s degree from the University of Arizona, serves as administrator of the Creative Writing Program and teaches undergraduate courses in fiction and nonfiction. A former reporter for the Oregonian, she has written essays that have appeared in such publications as Salon, Creative Nonfiction, Fourth Genre, Open Spaces and Portland magazine.

Gwartney is the winner of the 2000 Northwest Perspectives Essay contest, sponsored by Oregon Quarterly magazine and judged by essayist/poet Kim Stafford. She also is the winner of the 2000 Washington Square Review fiction contest, judged by E.L. Doctorow.

Gwartney is the recent recipient of a nonfiction fellowship from Literary Arts, Inc., and is one of this year’s Chautauqua presenters for the Oregon Council on the Humanities.

For more information, call the UO Creative Writing Program, (541) 346-0544.

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