Center for Creative Writing Board of Advisors

Laura Fiscus: Allegany College of Maryland

Laura Fiscus is a National Board Certified Teacher who hopes to increase the interest and skill of young writers. She has taught language arts and reading to elementary, middle, and high school students in the public schools for many years. She joined Allegany College of Maryland in 2009 where she is Coordinator of Developmental English. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, she earned the M.Ed. from Frostburg State University. She lives in Cumberland with her family.

Stephen Dunn: Poet

Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Different Hours, Stephen Dunn is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. He is the author of fourteen collections of poetry, including the recent Everything Else in the World. Loosestrife was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist in 1996; Local Time (William Morrow & Co.) was a winner of The National Poetry Series in 1986. Other honors include the Academy Award in Literature from The American Academy of Arts & Letters, Fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, three NEA Creative Writing Fellowships, a Distinguished Artist Fellowship from the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Levinson and Oscar Blumenthal Prizes from Poetry, the Theodore Roethke Prize from Poetry Northwest, and the James Wright Prize from Mid-American Review. A new (later) Selected & New Poems: 1995-2009 entitled What Goes On will be issued by Norton in early 2009. Stephen Dunn now resides in Frostburg with his wife, the writer Barbara Hurd.

Gary Horowitz:

Gary Horowitz spends his retirement years as a community volunteer serving currently as president of the Cumberland YMCA, the United Way of Allegany County and HRDC (Human Resources Development Commission). He is also a member of Potomac State College's Board of Visitors. For many years he was a professor of history at Alfred University before joining the administrative ranks in fundraising. He joined Frostburg State
University in 1994 as vice president of university advancement. He is a graduate of City College of New York and holds graduate degrees from The Ohio State University.

Georgia Kreiger:

Dr. Georgia Kreiger teaches composition, literature, and creative writing at Allegany College of Maryland, where she also directs the first-year composition program and edits the student literary and arts magazine, Expressions. Her scholarly works have been selected for publication in such journals as Modern Fiction Studies, Legacy, and African American Review. Her poetry has appeared in publications such as Nightsun, Antietam Review, Maryland Poetry Review, and Poet Lore. She recently received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study the American Transcendentalists of Concord, Massachusetts. Next spring, she will host a conference session on death in contemporary autobiography at the Northeastern Modern Language Association’s annual convention in Boston.

Fred Powell: Proprietor, Main Street Books

Fred Powell is the owner of Main Street Books, which opened in 1989, and is located in downtown Frostburg. He regularly hosts readings and book signings with local, regional and nationally-known authors and illustrators. Main Street Books stocks over 20,000 titles in 45 categories including a vast collection of literary fiction, poetry and children's literature. Powell is a board member of FrostburgFirst, the Main Street redevelopment program for downtown Frostburg, and, FSU's United Campus Ministry. Powell is active with the operation of the Frostburg Palace Theatre and is treasurer for The Palace's board of directors. He resides in Frostburg with his family.

Keith Schlegel: (chair)

Keith Schlegel is Professor Emeritus of Frostburg State University, where he was a longtime Chair of English. He holds the BA and MA from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) and the Ph.D. from West Virginia University. In his retirement, he splits his residence between St. Augustine, Florida, and Frostburg, where his wife Ellen Grolman teaches in the Music Department. Aside from his interest in promoting creative writing programs and activities at FSU, he occasionally performs his dramatic monolog as Walt Whitman ("The Good Gray Poet"), writes poetry and essays on such topics as higher education and politics, and edits. Fall semesters at FSU he teaches an interdisciplinary course on Just War Theory.