English professor Joshua McKinney will receive the President’s Award for Research and Creativity, commemorating his accomplishments in the field of poetry in recent years.
The ceremony will be held at 4 p.m., Wednesday Feb. 6 in the Orchard Suite of the University Union. A reception will follow. McKinney will present a lecture entitled “Pen & Sword in Accord: A Poetics,” which will deal with the relationship between his interests in poetry and Japanese swordsmanship.
McKinney, who since 1999 has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate poetry classes at Sacramento State, has published two award-winning books of poetry, Saunter and The Novice Mourner. A third book is in the works.
“I’m honored to receive this award, and pleased to see that a poet can win such an award, as the utility of poetry is often questioned,” says McKinney, who defines poetry as “nothing less than an attempt to perfect the character of the writer.”
McKinney was nominated for the award by English department chair Sheree Meyer and professor Doug Rice, who described him as “a true teacher scholar whose own creative activities support and infuse his teaching.”
He is credited with establishing a thriving poetry and creative writing community at the University and in the greater Sacramento area, for attracting a long and impressive list of guest writers to the campus, and for delivering his own far-reaching series of readings and professional presentations.
Meyer and Rice noted that McKinney’s receipt of the College of Arts & Letters Outstanding Teaching Award in 2004-05 attests to the connection of both his poetry and his teaching. “We have been fortunate in the English department to count a number of very fine writers among our faculty, and Joshua McKinney continues that tradition of excellence,” they wrote.
About the writer:
Sacramento State’s Sandy Harrison can be reached at cpa-04@csus.edu
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