Wichita State News: English

MFA student writes about her community's hardships

Natalie Olmsted came late to Wichita State University, but her experiences shaped the focus of her master's project and short story collection, "Voices from the North."

Olmsted, who grew up in Wichita's Hispanic community, worked at a dental office for 13 years. James Rhatigan, former WSU vice president and current WSU Foundation consultant, was a patient there.

She said he came in and talked about WSU. He read her work in the dental office and wanted her to go to college.

"He encouraged me," she said, "and made it really easy for me to walk back through the door."

She took her passion for writing to WSU's creative writing department.

Rhatigan had encouraged Olmsted to major in English, but since she'd been in the medical field for 13 years, she chose health administration.

After the first year, she determined that major wasn't right for her and went back to writing.

"I've always written short stories ever since I can remember," she said.

When she entered the master's program, her focus was on her short story collection, which was about the local Hispanic community.

Her graduate career got off to a shaky start, though. Her husband lost his job, and she had to work full-time while in school.

She said her first semester was tough. She lost her focus, couldn't write and didn't know what she was doing in Graduate School. Writing didn't seem important.

Richard Spilman, associate professor of English and her faculty adviser, told her to give it time.

"He was right," she said, "it came back."

And her collection was under way.

"Voices from the North" is about her community, which community members call North Side, the area near 21st and Broadway in Wichita.

"She has found a subtle and supple style in which to render people we actually care about," Spilman said. "Her stories have social and even political relevance, which will assure continuing interest."

Her inspiration came from her grandparents, who moved north from Mexico to better their lives and raise their family. Her collection is also about her father, whose story she said needed to be told.

"When I realized my community and family had a voice, I really wanted to write (about) that," she said.

She interviewed family members to get a better feel of the times and to understand the prejudice they faced when they first came to Wichita.

Her grandparents and parents were highly discriminated against, and she said she can hear the effects of that discrimination in their voices today.

She used her family's experiences and what she remembered from growing up to write her stories. She also researched Wichita's earlier history.

"Even though it's fictional, I wanted historical aspects, streets and buildings to be as accurate as possible," she said.

She said some short story collections are random pieces put together, but hers tells the story of a community over 50 years through different voices.

Olmsted has had some of her short stories published.

Mikrokosmos, WSU's literary journal, published "The Bread Maker." And Today's Latino Magazine, a bi-lingual magazine in the Mid-Atlantic area, published "Los Patos," a story about her father's golf group.

She hopes to have her collection published after graduation.

After midterms, when her manuscript is due, she plans to pull her three strongest stories and send a proposal for publication to the University of Arizona Press.

Olmsted began working full-time at the WSU Foundation as the planned giving associate in fall of 2006. She works with families when they establish memorials at WSU.

As a student, she was brought in to work on the "Spirit of the Gift" project focused on the histories behind WSU scholarships.

Her fantasy goal is to make a career out of writing. She said people have asked her where she would move to make that happen.

"I wouldn't move anywhere," she said. "I love Wichita."

And, more than anything, she enjoys being on campus and working at the foundation.

"If I'm here in some aspect and able to write, I'll be content," she said.

First WSU professorship in English department result of estate gift

Melba Hughes

The Wichita State University Foundation received an estate gift from Melba V. Hughes in the amount of $421,188, putting into motion the M.V. Hughes Professorship in English in the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

It is the first professorship in the English department and qualifies for the Kansas Board of Regents Faculty of Distinction program, which will supplement the payout of the fund, extending the impact of the contribution.

The fund will provide an annual salary stipend, in addition to possible research and professional travel support.

Hughes died Nov. 27, 2007. She left a legacy throughout her family, community and university.

She was a graduate of the University of Wichita in 1944, where she was active in student organizations and made many lifelong friends.

The 1943-44 edition of Who's Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities listed Hughes as a psychology major who "will receive an A.B. Degree and plans to do Personnel Work."

She served the university community as executive secretary of the student forum board, president and rush captain of Sorosis (now Delta Delta Delta) and treasurer of Women's Panhellenic.

Hughes was a member of the YWCA cabinet and varsity committee, Alpha Epsilon, Young Republicans Club, Wheaties and Dean's Honor Roll.

During her adult life, Hughes organized and hosted events including the Sorosis Centennial Reunion in 1997 and the Wichita Art Museum reopening in 2003. In 1994, as part of the WSU Campaign for Students, she graciously donated funds to create the Melba V. Hughes Endowed Scholarship.

Elizabeth King

"Melba was an absolute delight," said Elizabeth King, WSU Foundation president and CEO. "She was most dedicated to her family and loved her alma mater. She was very pleased to make the provisions for this gift."

She married Oliver H. Hughes in 1948; they had three children, Marilyn, Steve and Mindy. In addition to Wichita, the family lived in Emporia, Topeka and Lake Pomona, Kan., returning to Wichita in 1987, where Oliver Hughes died the following year.

Hughes continued to enjoy travel, friends, children and grandchildren. In 2001, she married a college sweetheart also from Wichita, Vincent F. Hiebsch, who died in 2007.

Author Connie May Fowler to give readings at WSU

Connie May Fowler, best-selling author of five novels and a memoir and Distinguished Visiting Writer in the Wichita State University Creative Writing Program, will read from her work in special collections of Ablah Library at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28.

Fowler will give a second reading at the Wichita Art Museum at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 3.

These free events, held in collaboration with special collections and the Art Museum, will be followed by a reception and book signing.

Sue Monk Kidd ("The Secret Life of Bees") says Fowler, who will work intensively with MFA fiction students during the coming month, writes "with wonderful originality and biting humor. 'The Problem with Murmur Lee' is about all the things that matter: life, death, love, forgiveness and the journey toward truth. Its deeply affecting story left me with an aching love for life."

The Goldbarth standard

This is Albert Goldbarth's moment, and it couldn't happen to a better writer or nicer guy.

Earlier this month, the 60-year-old Chicago native won the Mark Twain Poetry Award from the Poetry Foundation (poetryfoundation.org), the Chicago-based organization that publishes Poetry magazine.

His essay, "Everybody's Nickname," is included in the just-published "Best American Essays 2008" (Houghton Mifflin).

And in last week's issue of The New Yorker, you'll find a nifty Goldbarth poem: "The Way," an elegant and whimsical look at how we cut the universe down to size by the words we choose to describe it.

"Our language," Goldbarth writes, "scissors the enormity to scales we can tolerate."

The wondrous thing about Goldbarth, a professor at Wichita State University and author of "The Kitchen Sink: New and Selected Poems 1972-2007" (2007), is that he's no snob.

He loves comic books as much as he loves sonnets; he's a funny fusion of the high and low, the sophisticated and the earthy.

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Wichita State professor wins prestigious poetry award

Albert Goldbarth, the Adele B. Davis Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Wichita State University, has won the Mark Twain Poetry Award, part of the Poetry Foundation's annual Pegasus Awards.

This is only the third Mark Twain award given by the Poetry Foundation, one of the largest literary organizations in the world.

Albert Goldbarth

The award was given to Goldbarth for his contribution to humor in American poetry. It includes a gift of $25,000.Goldbarth was given the award in a ceremony Tuesday, Oct. 7, at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion Stage at Millennium Park in Chicago.

The Pegasus Awards are a series of annual prizes with an emphasis on new awards to under-recognized poets and types of poetry.

Goldbarth is the author of 25 collections of poetry, including "The Kitchen Sink: New and Selected Poems 1972-2007"; five essay collections; and a novel. The Chicago native has taught at Wichita State since 1987.

He has twice won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, the only poet to win the award twice, and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.

His work has appeared regularly in the Poetry Foundation's magazine, Poetry, since 1971. In 2005 he received the Frederick Bock prize from the magazine.

In 1999, he was named to the arts advisory board of the Judah L. Magnes Jewish Museum in Berkley, Calif.

Goldbarth has a new book, "To Be Read in 500 Years," to be published by Graywolf Press in May 2009.

For more information on Goldbarth's career, go to www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/1295.

For more information on the Pegasus Awards, go to www.wichita.edu/award.

WSU's Gythiel has become a top theological scholar

There are many words used to describe Anthony Gythiel: scholar, teacher, mentor. And by all accounts, it seems Gythiel has earned each title.

Gythiel is a professor of history at Wichita State, where he has taught since 1971. He started in the English department, but was courted by the history department in 1992, in part because of his background in medieval studies and theology.

Gythiel's knack for history also had a bit to do with his own past. Growing up in Belgium during World War II, Gythiel saw and experienced things few people he knows today have dealt with.

In 1940, his mother was killed during the Nazi bombardment of Belgium. One of six children, and only 10 years old, Gythiel was left to help pick up the pieces and start over.

"We helped each other and survived," he said.

After the war, Gythiel stayed in Belgium and eventually went to college. He received a bachelor's in philosophy in 1953 and master's in theology in 1958. It was then that Gythiel decided to become a Catholic priest, and he was subsequently sent to work as a missionary in Zaire.

In 1963, Gythiel decided to leave Zaire, which was in the middle of a revolution. After losing everything he had there, Gythiel once again found himself starting over.

Although Gythiel went through many hardships in his young life, he said they helped make him what he is today.

"They made me more intimately aware of evil in the world," he said.

That, he said, is something he hopes he won't see repeated again in his lifetime.

After Zaire, Gythiel came to America, where he had received a scholarship to attend the University of Detroit. From 1966-1971, he earned a master's in English and a Ph.D. in medieval studies.

He then landed in Wichita, a city he said slowly grew on him, and became an assistant professor at WSU. During his early years at Wichita State, Gythiel worked with what he calls great teachers who inspired him to be better.

"I said to myself, 'I want to imitate them and be a good teacher,' " he said.

Gythiel has since won three teaching awards, including the John R. Barrier Distinguished Teaching Award from the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 1993. He was the first person to win the award.

Aside from teaching, Gythiel has dedicated his career to translating historical theology works by world-renowned scholars. So far he has translated 10 works and is in the middle of his eleventh.

For his efforts, Gythiel was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by the trustees and faculty of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, NY, in May.

Keith Pickus

Keith Pickus, associate provost and vice president for academic affairs and research at WSU, said the painstakingly detailed work involved in the translations requires phenomenal linguistic skills and an immense knowledge of history.

He calls Gythiel's work a great contribution to the English-speaking Orthodox world and says he has established himself as a pre-eminent theological scholar.

"I discovered (years ago) that God had given me the great gift of language, but I had never used it," said Gythiel, who is fluent in five languages and has studied 13, including some that are no longer spoken.

"So I decided to do that in his honor."

At 77, Gythiel is in phased retirement at WSU and plans to stay another two years. He still teaches half-time and said he'll continue to translate works for as long as he can.

Once retired, Gythiel plans to relax with his wife, Dana, and stay in Wichita.

Pickus said he has been blessed to be friends and colleagues with Gythiel and is constantly impressed with his contributions to Wichita State.

"He is a wonderful human being and a highly accomplished scholar," Pickus said. "He is a real Renaissance man – a true scholar's scholar."

WSU grad student earns master's degree, writes novel

For Richard Davies, the countdown is on. Only a few days remain until he completes his master's degree in fiction writing at Wichita State University.

Richard Davies

Davies has been studying at WSU off and on for the past 30 years, and is earning his second degree from the university, the first of which was a bachelor of fine arts.

Besides permanent student retirement, he has other things on his mind: getting published.

The 49-year-old father of two has authored a novel for his final project in the graduate program, and plans to submit it for publication as soon as he finishes his final draft.

The futuristic novel, titled "Heirloom," looks at the negative effects of peak oil, predicting what events may occur after the depletion of the resource. Davies' book will likely be the first of a series in a trilogy.

Along with working as a freelance journalist for a number of years, writing mainly for CBS.com, Davies has also written two screenplays, one of which placed in the top 20 out of several thousand entries in a prestigious screenplay and amateur filmmaking contest.

Davies has been back at WSU after first studying at the university in 1976.

He took nearly six years off to start a family while he owned and operated Kirby's bar, located just south of the WSU campus, and completed his undergraduate degree in 1988.

Three years ago, he began graduate school and has been impressed with the program.

Davies said the instructors eagerly strive to teach students how to write well, and he believes he has made measurable improvements while learning the tools and methods he needs to become a successful author.

In addition to coursework, Davies has also acted as a graduate teaching assistant, interacting with more than 35 students on a regular basis.

Out of this experience came a love for teaching, which he found ironic since his mother had been telling him for years that she thought he would make an excellent teacher. He looked forward to each day he spent in the classroom.

"I would leap out of bed excited, thinking about what I would teach my students," he said. "I ultimately want to work as an author and teacher."

After Davies concludes his studies this semester, he plans to teach Introduction to Literature at Butler Community College this summer, and also as an adjunct instructor at WSU in the fall.

Husband-and-wife team to headline WSU reading series

The department of English at Wichita State University continues its 2007-08 Thursday Reading Series with fiction writer Amy Knox Brown and novelist/humorist John McNally at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, in the Marcus Welcome Center.

John McNally

McNally is the author of the John Simmons Award-winning story collection "Troublemakers," the award-winning novel "Book of Ralph," and the recent comic novel "America's Report Card."

He also is a prolific anthologist, with his recent effort, "When I Was a Loser," about high school experiences, being a top seller. He is the Olen R. Nalley Associate Professor of English at Wake Forest University.

McNally's wife, Knox Brown, will be reading from her story collection "Three Versions of the Truth." She is an English professor at Salem College.

There will be a local jazz outfit opening for the readers, and free refreshments will be served. A book-signing will follow the event. The WSU Campus Bookstore will sell the authors' works.