Two Penn Faculty Honored by the Free Library

MacArthur Fellow Susan Stewart, a Penn alumna and now a member of the English faculty, was honored along with Peter Conn, Andrea Mitchell Professor of English, at the fourth annual Borrowers Ball of the Free Library of Philadelphia Nov 1. Each year, the library invites prominent authors to the gala fund-raiser.

Stewart who earned her Ph.D. at Penn in 1978 in folklore and folklife, has written three volumes of poetry and three scholarly books, and Conn, best known for his widely acclaimed volume, "Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography," also has published scholarly works.

Stewart's "On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection" (Johns Hopkins, 1984) has had an impact beyond academe; it is a frequently cited resource for active artists.

In bestowing the oft-called "genius award," the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation cited Stewart's study on the effects of literary practices on social activity perception. The fellowship, free of obligations and including a $280,000 prize, was awarded last June, on the eve of Stewart's arrival at Penn as the Donald T. Regan Professor of English.

Conn's book on Buck was made into a one-woman play by actress Valerie Harper.

Stewart shared one of her poems with us:

Dark the star deep in the well, bright in the still and moving water, still as the night circling above the circle of stone the darkness surrounds. Dark the wish made on the star, a true wish made on the water's image. There is no technique in the grass. There is no technique in the rose. --"Dark the Star" Susan Stewart

MacArthur Fellow Susan Stewart joined Penn's faculty this year.