Alumna Receives MacArthur "Genius" Grant
For release: October 4, 2004
For press information, contact Gabrielle Maxey

A University of Memphis alumna has been named one of 23 MacArthur Fellows for 2004. C.D. Wright, an accomplished writer and professor of English at Brown University, will receive the $500,000 "genius grant" over the next five years. The award stipulates no obligations for recipients.

The MacArthur program emphasizes the importance of the creative individual to society. Fellows are selected for their originality, creativity, and potential. Candidates are nominated, evaluated, and selected in a rigorous and confidential process. No one applies for the awards, and there are no interviews.

Wright is a prolific poet, the author of ten volumes of poetry; she is also an editor for Lost Roads Publishers. No one description captures Wright's style. She has been called an experimental writer who reinvents herself with each new volume.

"My dream has always been to have the ability to do projects with other people," said Wright of the award. "I know that's not the usual condition of the poet, but I like ensembles, and I like public work. This definitely provides that kind of opportunity."

Wright graduated from the University of Memphis in 1971 and earned her MFA from the University of Arkansas. She was a lecturer in poetry at San Francisco State University before joining the faculty at Brown in 1983. Wright has held visiting faculty positions at the Burren School of Art in Ireland, the University of Iowa, and the University of Cincinnati. She is Israel J. Kapstein Professor of English at Brown.

Among her published works are Steal Away, Further Adventures with You, Just Whistle, and Deepstep Come Shining. Wright's poems have appeared in numerous anthologies. She has contributed poems, essays, and reviews to such publications as Ploughshares and The New Yorker.

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