Professor Boruch honored with Purdue's 2014 Research and Scholarship Distinction Award

June 17, 2014  


Marianne Boruch

Marianne Boruch (Photo by Will Dunlap) 
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - English professor and award-winning poet Marianne Boruch, who developed and directed the master of fine arts program from its inception until 2005, is the recipient of the 2014 Purdue University Research and Scholarship Distinction Award.

This award recognizes Boruch for her considerable contributions to the school of American poetry, for bringing national and international recognition to Purdue through her work, and for advancing poetry as an artistic, philosophical and spiritual force.

"It is fitting that Marianne Boruch is the recipient of this prestigious Purdue University research award, created to recognize faculty scholarly achievement outside the domain of natural sciences," Purdue President Mitch Daniels said in announcing this year's winner. "Today our creative writing MFA program is typically ranked among the top 25 of all programs of its kind nationally, in large part due to professor Boruch's efforts."

As the 2014 award recipient, Boruch will deliver the keynote address at the Purdue Research and Scholarship Distinction Distinguished Lecture this fall at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 19.

"I'm very grateful to Purdue University for giving me this opportunity," Boruch said. "I am honored to have been nominated and chosen by my fellow faculty and to be among the first winners of the Research and Scholarship Distinction Award."

Boruch came to Purdue in 1987 as creative writing professor. Her work includes eight collections of poetry, two books of essays on poetry and a memoir. She has been published in such places as The New Yorker, Poetry, The Nation, Poetry London, The Paris Review, American Poetry Review and Poetry 180. Her most recent book of poems, "Cadaver, Speak," was released in April.

Boruch earned international acclaim in 2013 when she received the Kingsley Tufts award for "The Book of Hours," which was published by Copper Canyon Press. The award is given annually to a mid-career poet by Claremont (California) Graduate University. The $100,000 prize that goes with the award is one of the largest monetary prizes for writing in the United States.

Her other awards include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, two Pushcart Prizes, and the Terrence DePres Award from Parnassus.

Boruch delivered the keynote address during Purdue's 2013 summer commencement ceremony. She also teaches semi-regularly in the low-residency for Writers at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, and conducts workshops at summer writing conferences, including at Bread Loaf in Vermont.

Born in Chicago, Boruch graduated from the University of Illinois and earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Before coming to Purdue, she taught at Tunghai University in Taiwan and the University of Maine at Farmington.

The Purdue Research and Scholarship Distinction Award recognizes university faculty whose recent contributions have made a major impact in a field other than the natural sciences. The 2014 award comes with a $4,000 cash award and $7,000 for her university scholarly activities.

Writers: Phillip Fiorini, 765-496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu

Anna Schultz, 812-447-5229, schult70@purdue.edu

Sources: Mitch Daniels, president@purdue.edu

Marianne Boruch, 765-494-6574, mboruch@purdue.edu

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