Scope and Contents
Papers of Maggie Anderson (born September 23, 1948, in New York City), an Appalachian poet and professor. She has been affiliated with organizations such as Kent State University (KSU) and its Wick Poetry Program, the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program (NEOMFA),Youngstown State University (YSU), the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), and West Virginia University (WVU).
Collection includes chiefly professional papers pertaining to her writing and teaching careers. Formats include audio cassettes, artifacts, typescripts, manuscripts, correspondence, motion pictures, printed material, broadsides, photographs, slides, and others.
Subjects include awards, professional activities (readings, workshops, etc.), student writings, teaching materials, material for publications, and Maggie Anderson's graduate school work. Material for publications includes submissions, notes, contracts, and other material for editorial projects and single author projects, including Learning By Heart: Contemporary American Poetry about School, A Space Filled with Moving, Years that Answer, After the Bell, The Next of Us Is About to Be Born, and other publications.
Addendum of 2017-12-19 contains correspondence, poems in anthologies, reviews, articles, clippings, posters, project files, etc. This addendum is minimally processed.
See Historical Note for more information about Anderson. For folder-level description, see contents list.
Dates
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1958-2017, undated
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Majority of material found within 1980-2012
Creator
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
Requires signed form, since special access restriction applies.
Conditions Governing Use
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
Biographical / Historical
Maggie Anderson (born September 23, 1948, in New York City) is an American poet, editor, and professor with roots in Appalachia, having moved to West Virginia when she was 13 years old.
She attended West Virginia Wesleyan College from 1966-1968. She then attended West Virginia University, earning a bachelor's degree in English with high honors in 1970, an MA in English (Creative Writing) in 1973, and a Masters of Social Work in 1977.
Beginning in 1978, Anderson worked as poet-in-residence for ten years in schools, prisons, and libraries in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. She has served as visiting writer at several universities, including the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Oregon, and West Virginia University. She has also lived in Denmark (1992-1993) and traveled in western and eastern Europe, Russia, and Scandinavia.
In 1989, Anderson began teaching creative writing at Kent State University and was appointed coordinator of the Wick Poetry Program in 1992. In 2004, she was named director of the Wick Poetry Center in the College of Arts and Sciences. Anderson was on the founding committee of the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program and remained involved in various capacities through 2009.
Anderson is the author of several poetry collections and the founder and editor of the Wick Poetry First Book Series and the Wick Poetry Chapbook Series for Ohio Poets (Kent State University Press, 1993-2011). In 1971, she co-founded the poetry journal Trellis with Winston Fuller and Irene McKinney, and served as editor until 1981. Her essays and poems have been published in poetry journals, and her work has appeared in more than 50 anthologies and textbooks.
Anderson's awards and honors include two fellowships in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts, various awards for distinguished writing and teaching, and grants.
Extent
42.6 Linear Feet (Summary: 42 ft. 7 1/4 in. (18 record cartons, 15 in. each); (13 record cartons, 12 in. each); (12 document case, 5 in. each); (1 index card box, 6 in.); (1 document cases, 4 in.); (2 document cases, 2 1/2 in. each); (1 large flat storage box, 5 in.); (2 small flat storage boxes, 1 1/2 in.); (1 rolled storage tube, 2 in.); (1 poster, 1/4 in.))