Dr. Christian Kiefer begins position as West Coast Editor for the Paris Review

The Paris Review recently announced that Dr. Christian Kiefer, Director of Ashland University's MFA Program in Creative Writing, will be taking on the newly created role of West Coast Editor. Emily Nemens, Editor of The Paris Review, writes that 

Christian’s inveterate energy, good taste, and large network have already proven valuable to my first issue, and we should all be thankful that he connected us with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, whose Art of Poetry interview is now underway.

Dr. Kiefer joined Ashland's English Department in January 2017. In addition to directing the low-residency MFA program, Dr. Kiefer is also a musician and a prolific writer of numerous works, including his novel The Infinite Tides and the novella One Day Soon Time Will Have No Place Left to Hide. His forthcoming novel, Phantoms, will be published in April by Liveright.

English Major Jordan Martin Completes Grant Writing Internship

English major Jordan Martin shares what she learned from her summer internship.

This past summer, I interned in the University Grants and Foundation Relations Office at Ashland University. Through this internship, I was able to learn the different aspects of writing proposals and managing earned grants. For example, I performed many hours of research regarding different foundations that accept grant requests and wrote multiple letters of intent to various foundations. I learned how programs at AU are started and executed. Additionally, I was able to use and improve my critical thinking, researching, and writing skills in this position as I worked with my mentor, Sharon Lowe. The main objectives of my internship were to 1) learn how to write grant proposals and other important documents and 2) advance Ashland University through the projects my mentor had planned. I enjoyed serving Ashland University in a way that will deliver visible results in the next few years.

This internship opportunity has been invaluable to me. I appreciate getting hands-on experience in seemingly every aspect of grant writing. Additionally, Sharon has been an amazing mentor who encouraged me throughout my internship. The greatest takeaways I have from this experience are learning that I have the capability to be successful in this career field and that I definitely want to pursue a career in grant writing. This internship has given me confidence that I can be successful in writing grant proposals for nonprofit organizations and that I can make a difference through my work.

Jordan is committed to writing excellence in a variety of contexts. In addition to perfecting her skills with grant writing, she is also a Writing Assistant at the University Writing Center, where she assists other students in developing their own writing skills.

Megan Connor Begins New Position as Director of the University Writing Center

The English Department welcomes Megan Connor, who recently joined AU as Director of the University Writing Center. In this role, she will oversee the many services offered by the Writing Center, including one-on-one appointments between Writing Assistants (WAs) and undergraduate students seeking assistance in any subject, the training and continued professional development of the WAs, graduate and Seminary writing consultations, and English 110 (the writing lab connected with the Composition Program). Megan describes her training and previous work as follows:

For the last four years, I taught 11th grade English Language Arts at Bio-Med Science Academy, a STEM high school located on the Northeast Ohio Medical University’s campus. While there, I established and developed a student-staffed writing center. Going through this process re-ignited my passion for writing centers.

I have been involved with writing centers for over ten years and have worked with them in almost every capacity - as a student, as a peer tutor, as an assistant director, and as a director establishing a new center. I have my Master’s in Rhetoric and Composition from Kent State and am currently enrolled in the Curriculum and Instruction doctoral program at Kent State. My main research interests include the teaching of writing, writing centers, peer review, new literacies, and critical social justice education.

In addition to her training and expertise, Megan brings with her a warm enthusiasm for the AU community. She writes,

I have been awed by how welcoming everyone has been. There seems to be a real sense of community at Ashland, and I am really looking forward to becoming a part of that community.

The department looks forward to Megan's contributions in her new role!