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Bill Roorbach, critically acclaimed author and winner
of a 2002 O. Henry Award, has been named the College’s
newest Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters. Roorbach
succeeds Danzy Senna — author of Caucasia and the newly
released Symptomatic — who held the post since 2000.
A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for
the Arts and the Kaplan Foundation, Roorbach has published
widely praised works in both fiction and nonfiction. His
collection of short stories, Big Bend ( University of Georgia
Press, 2001), won the Flannery O’Connor Award in 2001.
Counterpoint Press recently issued Big
Bend in a matching
edition with his novel, The Smallest
Color, which was described
by the Boston Globe as “Superb … a novel that
instantly demands your attention and holds it until the surprisingly
sweet conclusion.” Roorbach’s nonfiction works
include A Place on Water, with Robert Kimber and Wesley McNair
(Tilbury House, 2004); Into Woods (University of Notre Dame
Press, 2002); Summers with Juliet (Houghton Mifflin, 1992);
and The Art of Truth (Oxford University Press, 2001), an
anthology of literary memoirs, personal essays and literary
journalism which he edited. His new book, Temple
Stream (Dial
Press), is forthcoming in 2005. More information can be found
at www.billroorbach.com.
Roorbach earned his bachelor’s degree from Ithaca
College in New York, and his master of fine arts degree in
fiction writing from Columbia University, where he was awarded
a School of the Arts fellowship and a fellowship of distinction.
He has taught at Colby College, Waterville, Maine; Ohio State
University; and the University of Maine at Farmington. Roorbach
is married to painter Juliet Karelsen; the couple has one
daughter, Elysia.
Established in 1988, the Jenks Chair is named in honor of
William H.P. Jenks ’54. Though forced to leave the
College in 1951, when he contracted polio, Jenks remained
devoted both to Holy Cross and his class, serving as class
secretary for more than 25 years. In 1979, the College granted
him an honorary degree. In 1988, an anonymous donor made
a gift in his name, contributing $1 million to endow a professorship
in the English department.
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