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Maggie Anderson
I came to Kent State in 1989 as an Assistant Professor of creative writing (poetry) in the Department of English. In my job interview, there was some mention of my eventually becoming involved with the Wick Poetry Program which, at that time, was housed in the Department of English under the direction of Professor Sanford Marovitz, Chair and Professor Robert Tener, Graduate Coordinator. I had no clear idea of what this “Wick Program” was, other than that it awarded scholarships to high school students entering KSU. With the retirement of Professors Marovitz and Tener, I became the program coordinator of the Wick Program and began, gradually, to discover the possibilities of this remarkable endowment.
The program did, indeed, offer scholarships to students entering KSU and had been doing so since 1984. Also, a handsome broadside of the winning poems was published each year and distributed on campus and to Ohio high schools entering the competition.
With the assistance of a faculty committee, we began to plan some additional activities that could raise the profile of the Wick program (which, by this time, had a healthy endowment) and provide additional poetry programs for Kent State and the surrounding community. By 1994, we had established additional scholarships in poetry for KSU undergraduates and a chapbook competition through The Kent State University Press for Ohio poets – both a student competition and an open competition for anyone writing in Ohio. This cooperative arrangement with the KSU Press continues to this day, with the addition (in 1996) of a first book competition for anyone writing in English, to be judged by a nationally renowned poet and published by the KSU Press.
During the years from 1989-1994, when we held our first “anniversary” celebration of 10 years of the Wick Poetry Program, a number of faculty were vital to its success. I would especially note Professors Donald M. Hassler, Frederick S. Schwarzbach (former department chair), Susanna Fein (former department chair), Ron Corthell (current department chair) Lloyd Mills, Henry Van Dyke, Raymond Craig, Louis Paskoff, Kathe Davis, Claire Culleton, Kristen Precht; and Instructors Alice Cone, Maj Ragain, Ted Lyons, and Katherine Blackbird. There are many, many other faculty and students across the campus who have supported the Wick Poetry Program over the past 25 years with their time and resources, through our annual reading series, our scholarships – including now an annual Honors College Scholarship – our book series, our outreach programs, and our many other special events including 10th, 15th, and 20th anniversaries – and now, our 25th!
A quarter of a century is a long time for any program to maintain a vibrant, thriving life. And, for myself, 17 years is a long time to be responsible for such a program. I suppose the thing is, that this is more than a “program” to me. It is a calling that I have answered eagerly because I love the work it has given me to do. To provide young poets with scholarships (the first money they ever earn for their poetry), graduate and undergraduate assistantships, book publications, readings, and opportunities to teach younger poets in the schools is -- or is for me – a remarkable gift to have been given. To see those young poets grow and go on to publish books, obtain teaching jobs or arts management jobs, or editing jobs, and to become members of the small but devoted literary community of poets is a great joy. The Wick Poetry Program – now, a Center since 2004, under the College of Arts and Sciences – has given me that joy.
I have been a poet since I was in the second grade and a poet came to my school (much like David Hassler and his outreach students go to schools now). We went outside the school – in itself, a rare occasion in the middle of the day – and were instructed to look closely at everything we could see, hear, smell, taste, feel and then write a poem about that. I became engaged with a particular tree branch, and it, and my own imagined cleverness, created a poem that compared the bark of a tree to the bark of a dog. The poet admired my poem, and I swore that day that I would be a poet and teach others how to make poems forever.
The Wick Poetry Center, established in 1984 in memory of Stan and Tom Wick, has given me the chance to fulfill that promise to myself. I honor the memory of these two young men who left this world before their own great potential could be fulfilled, and I am forever grateful to the Robert and Walter Wick families for making possible the realization of the dreams and hopes of so many young poets, including my younger poet self who came to Kent State wondering what I might offer here and what a “Wick Program” might be.
Maggie Anderson
Poet
Professor, Department of English
Director, Wick Poetry Center (1992-2009)
Editor, Wick Poetry Series (1992-2009)
manders0@kent.edu
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