Curriculum Vita

PERSONAL: Name: Virginia Lee Gilbert, Ph.D.

Phone: (256) 464-9130)
E-mail: vgpoet@aol.com

EDUCATION: 1984-91: Ph.D., English, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Major: ​Creative Writing-Poetry; oral waived

1974-75: Further study in Creative Writing, University of Utah, Salt ​Lake City.

1969-71: M. F. A. in Creative Writing-Poetry, University of Iowa, Iowa ​​​City. Major: Creative Writing-Poetry.

1965-69: B. A., Iowa Wesleyan College, Mt. Pleasant.
​Major: English Minor: Liberal Arts.

DISSERTATION: DEATH BY PLAIN WORDS: THE RETELLING. Directors: ​Dr. Leslie Whipp and Mr. Gregory Kuzma. A book of my poems with a fifty page introduction to the influences on my writing.

THESIS: FRAGMENTS AND OTHER PIECES. Director: Ms. Kathleen Fraser. My M. F. A. thesis for the Iowa Writers Workshop presents images of the world of war, loss, and urban anomie.

ACADEMIC SERVICE:

Professor Emerita, 2010- now; Professor, Department of English, Alabama A&M University, Normal, May, 2001, to August 1, 2007; Associate Professor, June, 1992, to May, 2001; Assistant Professor, January, 1980 to June, 1992. Director, Program in Creative Writing and Visiting Reading Series; Chairman, Share Our Strength Writers’ Harvest Reading; Co-chair, SACS Reaccreditation Committee for the Improvement of the Cultural On-Campus Environment, 2003-4, First Place SACS Award for Best Plan, 2005; New Library Building Committee, Springfest, others.

Teaching Fellow in Creative Writing, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1984-87. Secretary, English Graduate Student Association, 86-87.

Instructor of English as a Second Language, College of Lake County, Grayslake,​Illinois, fall, 1979.

Instructor of English as a Second Language and test writer, Department of Defense ​Sub-Contracts, July, 1976-February, 1979, Iran.

Administrator, The Academy of American Poets and the Writers’ Community, ​New York City, January, 1976-July, 1976.

Teaching Fellow, Creative Writing, University of Utah, October, 1974-June, 1975.

English Instructor, Peace Corps, Korean Middle School Program, June, 1971-​September, 1973, Korea.

OTHER WORK EXPERIENCE:

Secretary, The Arts Council-Huntsville Arts Assembly, 2008-09.

Ad Writer, Lakeland Publishers, Inc, Grayslake, Illinois, 1974.

Features Editor, Iowa Wesleyan College newspaper, 1961-65. My “Senior Spotlight” interviews were cited in our winning Best Small College newspaper of 1961-62.

Chief Usher, Iowa Wesleyan College’s Lyceum Series, 1963-65.

PUBLICATIONS:

Books: THAT OTHER BRIGHTNESS (Black Star Press, December, 1995); Sarah ​Fairchild, editor; second book of poems in progress

Chapbooks: GREATEST HITS, (Pudding House Publishers, May, 2004); THE ​EARTH ABOVE (Catamount Press, spring, 1993); TO KEEP AT BAY THE ​HOUNDS (Nebraska Poets’ Association, fall, 1985).

Over a hundred poems have appeared in print in the following:

Magazines–Beloit Poetry Journal; The Seneca Review; Prairie ​Schooner; Poetry Now; Sumac; The North American Review; ​Southern Poetry Review; New York Quarterly; Mss., The Poetry Society of America’s Poetry Review; Split This Rock, others.

Anthologies–Whatever Remembers Us; An Anthology of Alabama Poetry; Ordinary and Sacred as Blood, Alabama Women Speak; Claiming the Spirit Within: A Source Book of Women’s Poetry (title poem for the section on Work); Cameos: Twelve Small Press Women Poets; I Hear My Sisters Saying; New Voices in American Poetry; I Love you All Day; it is that simple, others.

Articles–“Galway Kinnell: An Interview with Albert Goldbarth and Virginia Gilbert,” Crazy Horse, No.6 (March 1971) and Walking Down the Stairs: Selections from Interviews, Poets on Poetry Series, Michigan University Press, 1978; “On Writing the Poem, `Finding You,'” New Voices in American Poetry, Winthrop, 1973; “Why I Write,” Cameos: Twelve Small Press Women Poets, Crossing, 1978; “Poetry in Iran,” The Bulletin of the Poetry Society of America, fall, 1980; “The Role of the Liberal Arts in Society Today,” Focus, Iowa Wesleyan College, 1984.

READINGS:​ The Association of Writers and Writing Programs Annual Conferences, 2013 (Chair and Presenter-“The Bible, Women, and American Literature”) and 2011 (Chair and Presenter-“Peace Corps Poets”); South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conferences, 2012-“Iowa Writers’ Workshop Graduates in the South,” and 2009, Special Event, “Peace Corps Poets”; Mississippi State Poetry Society Keynote Speaker, April 30, 2011; Alabama Book Festival, April 17, 2010; South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference, November 8, 2008 (SAMLA Poets); Southern Festival of Books, 2007, 2003; Conflict in Southern Literature Conference, September 29, 2004; The Third Annual Emerald Coast Writers’ Conference, Pensacola Junior College, February 23, 2002; Chicago Harold Washington Main Library, June 28, 2001; The International Women’s Writing Guild, New York City, June 7, 2001; Barbican Library, City of London, England, May 26,1999; Alabama Humanities Foundation Speaker Bureau lecturer on Alabama Poets in the 1890s and the 1990s (1997-98); Motlow College Second Annual Writers Festival, guest writer with Howard Bahr and Jerry Bledsoe (March 25-26, 1998); South Atlantic Modern Language Association, (November 13-15, 1997); City Stages, Birmingham (June 13, 1997); Twentieth Century Literature Conference, University of Louisville (February 21, 1997,and February 26, 1998); The Southern Festival of Books, Nashville (October 14, 1995); Keynote Speaker, Alabama State Poetry Society (October 29, 1994); Iowa Wesleyan College (October 8,1994); National Returned Peace Corps Conference (July 29, 1994); The Celebration of Books Festival, Huntsville (September 17, 1994 and September 25, 1993); Huntsville Literary Association Soiree (May 16, 1993); Alabama State-wide Conference for the Arts (February 28, 1994 and March 26, 1992); WLRH Public Radio’s Tennessee Valley Writers’ Corner, July 28,1991 through now; Shakespeare & Co., Paris, France (June 25, 1990); Birmingham-Southern College’s Writing Today 10th Annual Conference on Creative Writing (April 7, 1990); The 2nd Tennessee Valley Women’s Conference, Huntsville (March 4, 1989); Poetry Society of America’s 2nd Midwest Regional Conference, Fontbonne College (October 19, 1985); Alabama Public Television (spring, 1984); Workshop leader, Sigma Tau Delta National Conference (spring, 1983); The Midwest Modern Language Association Conference, Indianapolis (November 8, 1979); Workshop leader, International Women’s Writing Guild Conference, Skidmore College (summer, 1979); Cummington Community of the Arts (summer, 1979); National Iranian Radio, Tehran, Iran (1978); WHNT Radio, Waukegan, Illinois (1974; The University of Iowa (spring, 1971); plus many others.
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AWARDS:​ 2009-2010 Alabama State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant in Literature for poetry; 2006 Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Pudding House Nominated Poet for their juried “Greatest Hits” Series, May, 2002; Alabama State Poetry Society’s Poet of the Year, 2001; First Place, Alabama State Poetry Society’s Poetry Slam, October,17, 1998; Alabama Humanities Foundation Speakers Bureau Fellow, 1997-98; “That Other Brightness” nominated for Alabama State Poetry Society’s Book of the Year, 1995; Share our Strength Conference of Leaders, 1995; Hays-Fulbright Fellow, China, June 28 to August 5, 1992; First Place, Adult, the 28th annual Sakura Haiku Contest, 2014, the Second annual Sakura Haiku Contest,1992; Title III Faculty Development Grant, Alabama A&M University, 1990-91; Hackney Award in Poetry, 1990; Nebraska Poets’ Association’s Chapbook Series, 1984; Outstanding Young Woman of America, 1980; National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, 1976-77; First Place Honorarium, First Earth Day Competition, “The Daily Iowan,” 1970; Harlan Award, Iowa Wesleyan College,1966-69; others. Numerous awards in photography (see attachment).

Finalist: Pitt Poetry Series and The Chowder River Review chapbook ​competition, and, at various times, in Who’s Who Among American Educators, Who’s Who in the South and Southwest, Who’s Who of American Women, The International Who’s Who in Poetry and Poets’ Encyclopaedia, Who’s Who in Writers, Editors, and Poets, Contemporary Authors, etc.

Honoree, Peace Corps Reunion in Korea, hosted by Friends of Korea and the Korean government, October 25-31, 2009.

PREPARED AREAS: I am quite qualified and well prepared to teach anything dealing with creative writing, in particular, poetry but also fiction for both the graduate and undergraduate levels. I also have a strong background in teaching courses in the traditional areas of modern and American literature as well as ESL.

Other prepared areas are:

Arts Administration: As an administrator for the Writers’ Community at the Academy of American Poets, and as the Director of Creative Writing at Alabama A & M University, I have been the organizing force behind a number of literary events including readings and workshops with Donald Justice, H.E. Frances, Ellen Bryant Voigt, E. Ethelbert Miller, Lucille Clifton, and others. For thirteen years, I have been the Coordinator of the local Share Our Strength Writers’ Harvest which has raised around $11,000 and over 5,000 pounds of canned goods for the Food Bank of North Alabama. As President of the Huntsville Photographic Society during 1997, I initiated, among other activities, an exhibition of members’ works at a local art gallery. I am the founder and Vice-President of the North Alabama Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Group (currently inactive) and I am a former President of the Huntsville Chapter of the National League of American Pen Women, serving from 1990 to 1994; I was also its Arts Council Representative. I have, as well, been Vice-President of the Huntsville Photographic Society and co-editor of The Muse Messenger newsletter for the Alabama State Poetry Society.

Contemporary Poetry: Graduate or undergraduate courses in modern American and English poetry since 1890; seminars with Mr. Galway Kinnell and Mr. Anselm Hollo on modern poetry and a seminar on W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot with Dr. Linda Pratt.

American Literature: Undergraduate courses of traditional periods in American literature; graduate seminars on Walt Whitman at the University of Iowa, and the American Renaissance with Dr. Charles Mignon at the University of Nebraska.

Ph.D. exams: Creative Writing, Poetry,​Twentieth Century American and British Literature, American Literature to 1900, Medieval English Literature.

PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES:​Modern Language Association; Association of Writers and Writing Programs; Poets & Writers, Inc.; Poetry Society of America, past member International Committee; Academy of American Poets: International Women’s Writing Guild, International League of American Pen Women, past President, local chapter; Huntsville Photographic Society, past President, Huntsville Literary Association, others.

RECOMMENDATIONS: (Available upon request) Poets Kelley Cherry, Albert Goldbarth, Philip Dacey, Ellen Bryant Voigt; Dr. Leslie Whipp, (Ph.D. Co-Chair); Dr. Mattie Thomas, Chairperson, Department of English, Alabama A & M University; Hilda Raz, Poet and Editor, Prairie Schooner; others.

CREDENTIALS: The Educational Placement Office
The University of Iowa
302 Lindquist Center N.
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1529