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The Ferrol A. Sams, Jr.
Distinguished Chair of English
Students have the opportunity to study with some of the nation's most influential writers of the day. Established in 1993, the Ferrol A. Sams, Jr. Distinguished Chair of English brings a nationally prominent fiction writer, poet or dramatist to Mercer each spring to teach creative writing and highlight the literary arts.
Made possible by a major grant from the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation, this endowed chair honors Dr. Ferrol A. Sams, Jr., a physician, author and distinguished alumnus of the College of Liberal Arts, whose works include Run with the Horsemen, The Whisper of the River, When All the World Was Young, The Passing, The Widow's Mite, and Christmas Gift. Run with the Horsemen was selected as the Book of the Year by residents of Atlanta, when they were asked to vote on their favorite book in 2006.
The 2007 Sams Distinguished Chair
Margaret Gibson will be in residence for several weeks spring semester 2007. She will teach creative writing workshops for selected students as well as give public readings and lectures. She is the author of eight books, including
- Autumn Grasses,
- Icon and Evidence,
- Earth Elegy, New and Selected Poems,
- The Vigil, A Poem in Four Voices,
- Out in the Open,
- Memories of the Future, The Daybooks of Tina Modotti,
- Long Walks in the Afternoon, and
- Signs.
Past Ferrol A. Sams, Jr. Distinguished Chairs of English
- Kelly Cherry, an influential poet, novelist and essayist, was on campus from mid-January through early March in 2006. Cherry's best-known book is the New York Times best-seller My Life and Dr. Joyce Brothers, a Novel in Stories.
- David Bottoms, Poet Laureate of Georgia and an alumnus of the College of Liberal Arts;
- novelist Pattiann Rogers;
- poet Louis Simpson.
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Margaret Gibson is the author of eight books of poetry: Autumn Grasses (2003); Icon and Evidence (2001); Earth Elegy, New and Selected Poems (1997); The Vigil, A Poem in Four Voices, a Finalist for the National Book Award in 1993; Out in the Open (1989); Memories of the Future, The Daybooks of Tina Modotti, co-winner of the Melville Cane Award of the Poetry Society of America in 1986-87; Long Walks in the Afternoon, the 1982 Lamont Selection of the Academy of American Poets; and Signs (1979). She has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, a Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fellowship, and Grants from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. "Earth Elegy," the title poem of New and Selected Poems, won The James Boatwright III Prize for Poetry. "Archaeology" was awarded a Pushcart Prize in 2001. Gibson lives in Preston, Connecticut.
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