UA English Professor Named Winner of Burnum Distinguished Faculty Award

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Joel Brouwer, a poet and University of Alabama professor of English, will receive UA’s 2012 Burnum Distinguished Faculty Award.

As part of the award ceremony, Brouwer will deliver a lecture titled “Is There Room in Here for a Dancing Sailor?: The Poet as Curator.” The lecture will be at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 30, at UA’s Child Development Research Center.

A reception will follow. The event is free and open to the public.

Brouwer is the author of three books of poems: “Exactly What Happened” (Purdue, 1999); “Centuries” (Four Way Books, 2003); and “And So” (Four Way Books, 2009). He has held fellowships from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

His poems, essays and reviews have appeared in AGNI, Boston Review, Chelsea, Crazyhorse, Georgia Review, Gettysburg Review, Iowa Review, Massachusetts Review, New England Review, New York Times Book Review, Paris Review, Parnassus, Ploughshares, Poetry, The Progressive, Slate, Tin House, Washington Post Book World and other publications. He has taught at UA since 2002 and was promoted to full professor in 2010.

“Here on campus, Professor Brouwer is deeply committed to both his undergraduate students and his graduate students in the University’s nationally ranked MFA program in creative writing,” wrote Dr. Catherine E. Davies, professor and chair of the English department. “He is a sought-after mentor among graduate students, and applicants to the MFA program frequently cite their desire to work with him. His national reputation directly contributes to the MFA program’s success and growth.”

The Burnum Award is one of the highest honors the University bestows on its faculty. Established by Celeste Burnum and the late Dr. John F. Burnum of Tuscaloosa, the award is presented annually to a professor who is judged by a faculty selection committee to have demonstrated superior scholarly or artistic achievements and profound dedication to the art of teaching.

The English department is part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.