Mary Biddinger Receives Ohio Arts Council Award

Akron, Ohio, June 19, 2007 - Dr. Mary Biddinger, assistant professor of English at The University of Akron, has been awarded a $5,000 Individual Creativity Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. Biddinger recently published a volume of poetry titled “Prairie Fever” (Steel Toe Books, Western Kentucky University).

An Akron resident, Biddinger is a faculty member in the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (NEOMFA) program, where she has been a leader in promoting the arts in the region and at area universities. The NEOMFA program offers a unique collaborative design allowing students to take advantage of an award-winning faculty of 26 members and to concentrate in the writing of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, playwriting, and literary translation.

In addition to her work with NEOMFA, Biddinger fosters student literary arts activities. She holds a doctorate from the University of Illinois-Chicago and a master of fine arts degree from Bowling Green State University. Her poems have appeared nationwide in literary magazines such as “American Literary Review,” “The Iowa Review,” “Crazyhorse” and “Ploughshares.” She is also the editor for the journals “RHINO” and “Barn Owl Review.” Biddinger is currently serving as chair of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Pedagogy Team.

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