Thursday, September 14, 2000

WILMINGTON, N.C. UNCW's Creative Writing Department has announced that MFA student Shannon McCreery has been awarded the $1,000 Robert H. Byington Leadership Fellowship in Creative Writing. The award, established to honor the outstanding leadership and pioneering work of Professor Emeritus Bob Byington, will be awarded each year to an MFA student of outstanding creative achievement who has also contributed significantly to the morale and community spirit of the MFA program.

"Creative writing at UNCW began with the vision and enthusiasm of Bob Byington," said Philip Gerard, who, together with Kathleen Johnson, donated funds for the fellowship. "It is in great part because of his leadership and foresight that creative writing is now a department."

McCreery, a fiction writing student who will graduate in December, was cited for "producing short fiction that is luminously original, humorous, and moving" and for her "enormous generosity of spirit." She was also lauded for initiating a short fiction performance project currently underway between UNCW's Creative Writing and Art and Theatre Departments.