Creating Student Appreciation for the Written Word
Outside of the classroom, Dr. Brian Bartlett enjoys spending time outdoors on the Bluff Wilderness Trail near Timberlea. |
Dr. Brian Bartlett, wears many hats. He is poet, author, professor and Coordinator of the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English.
He loves being in front of a class, but the 2010-11 recipient of the Father William A. Stewart, S.J., Medal for Excellence in Teaching can’t pinpoint exactly what he loves most. He's clear, however, that the classroom is the best place for sharing fascination with the written word.
“In Creative Writing classes," says Bartlett, "no matter what students are writing, intensive and extensive reading of exceptional samples raises the bar, and stimulates students to push themselves beyond easy competence. Workshops can be an eye-opening, original experience for students, with conversation revolving around one of their own poems or stories for the first time in their lives.”
Bartlett’s time in the classroom has captured the attention of students and colleagues. Comments from students in Bartlett’s Writing Fiction (Advanced) 4475.0 course speak of the “formidable impression” Bartlett left with students, and the “substantial influence” he has had on their creative writing. One of his courses was described as an “epitome of what a university education should be with respect to student-professor relationships.”
Praise of Bartlett doesn’t end there. Renowned author and Saint Mary’s professor Alexander MacLeod described in a nomination letter the impact Bartlett has had on students across Nova Scotia.
"He has mentored an entire generation of Atlantic Canada’s leading poets and writers. Through his workshops and classes, and his visits to local schools and communities across the province, he has effectively re-shaped the way we read and think about this region’s literature,“ says MacLeod.
"Most people know Dr. Bartlett as an award-winning poet of enormous emotional power and intelligence, but I think the essential role he has played as a teacher has always been a quieter and more private endeavour, a kind of whispered secret shared by many.”
"Being at Saint Mary’s," says Bartlett, "has integrated so much for me: the pleasures of close reading and re-reading, sharing enthusiasm for literature with students, delving into how our language works and can be played with, and watching student writers discover that writing can be endlessly interesting, satisfying passion."
A native of New Brunswick, Bartlett's professional accomplishments have included Malahat Review Long Poem Prizes in 1991 and 1998, a Banff Writers' Studio Scholarship, and first prize in the Petra Kenney poetry awards. Other achievements include publishing five collections and four chapbooks of poems, as well as Wanting the Day: Selected Poems, which was published internationally and won the 2004 Atlantic Poetry Prize. Bartlett is compiling many kinds of prose -- reviews, essays, memoirs, introductions, journals, tributes -- into a book, Living with Poetry, and he edited both Earthly Pages: The Poetry of Don Domanski and The Essential James Reaney. His own most recent collection, The Watchmaker's Table, won the Acord-Plantos Award for People's Poetry.
The Father William A. Stewart, S.J., Medal for Excellence in Teaching honors those who have made a significant contribution to the education of Saint Mary’s students through excellence in teaching and service, evaluated by teaching ability and classroom performance, interaction with students and extracurricular contributions to the life of the university.
This page last modified Monday, 19-Sep-2011 11:05:22 ADT