The Thomas Wolfe Scholarship in Creative Writing, a four-year award covering tuition, fees, room, board and some extra-curricular activities, will be the University?s first creative writing scholarship to provide its recipients a full ride. UNC alumnus Frank Hanes gave the University a $2 million endowment to establish the new scholarship, which will be granted to one incoming freshman each year, beginning in 2002.
According to Hanes? plans, Wolfe Scholars will be encouraged to explore writing courses in various departments, including communication studies, dramatic art and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, as well as the English Department. Any student would be eligible to receive the award. Creative writing Assistant Professor Bland Simpson, who will serve as co-director of the new scholarship, said the new scholarship is an excellent opportunity, both for candidates and for UNC. ?It?s an exciting thing and we don?t know whom we?re going to meet,? he said. ?But we do know what high-spirited and imaginative students we meet through the Creative Writing Program. We think that we will meet even more like-minded and like-inspired would-be students because of the attraction of this.? Simpson said planners were still working on details of how some of the scholarship funds will be used.
?(The Morehead Scholarship) provides summer travel and internship opportunities for people in the program,? Simpson said. ?We?ll attempt to do that, too.
?We can focus quite a bit on making a very particular thing work out for an individual. We?re poised to help place someone in a situation and tailor that individual?s plans toward what he or she is interested in.? The scholarship is named in honor of UNC alumnus Thomas Clayton Wolfe, whose novels include ?Look Homeward, Angel? and ?The Web and the Rock,? both of which feature characters and situations based on his experiences at UNC. Simpson said Wolfe has inspired generations of young writers, including himself as an undergraduate.
?We will certainly put a healthy selection of Wolfe works in the recipients? hands, and I think they will want to see who inspired the gift that is benefiting them,? he said. ?But we?re not going to say you?ve got to read every word that Wolfe wrote. Still, it would be a travesty if any student came here and did not have some reading in what Wolfe had done and what he?d accomplished here.? Hanes, who has already endowed five other UNC scholarships, graduated from UNC in 1942 with a degree in English. He served on the UNC Board of Visitors from 1974 to 1989, and has led and served on several other UNC committees.
Simpson said he is pleased both by Hanes? generosity and by the decision of University officials to base the new scholarship in the Creative Writing Program. He said the program, formally created in the 1940s, is now experiencing a surge in popularity. ?We?re booming,? Simpson said. ?I can?t think of almost any time in the 20 years that I?ve been working within the program that it?s had as much interest.?
Geoff Wessel can be reached at vrooom@email.edu. Staff Writer Meredith Nicholson contributed to this article.
