Struloeff wins prestigious Stegner fellowship at Stanford

University of Nebraska-Lincoln English doctoral student John Struloeff has been selected as a 2005 Wallace Stegner Fellow by Stanford University. Struloeff was one of five poets named from a pool of roughly 1,400 poetry and fiction candidates from the United States and 25 countries. Five fiction fellows were also chosen.

The fellowship is for a two-year working artist program of study at Stanford. The fellowship includes tuition of $13,000 per year and a $22,000 per-year stipend.

This is the first Stegner fellowship obtained by a UNL student.

Struloeff, a native of Clatskanie, Ore., evolved into a poet during his academic career. As an undergraduate student at Oregon State University, he studied physics and wrote stories on the side. Soon, he said he realized that he liked writing foremost.

Struloeff said he has thought of himself as a fiction writer and initially wrote poetry as a way to expand his abilities with language. He began to think of himself as a poet when he had a poem published in the Atlantic Monthly. Still, he said, the fact that the fellowship came in poetry was a big surprise.

In making their choices, the Stegner fellowship panel looks for people who are prepared and experienced writers who may have had pieces published, but haven't published a first book yet.

"That's where I'm at," Struloeff said. "I have a book manuscript that has been a finalist for a couple of book competitions but hasn't been published."

The timing of the fellowship fits in well with Struloeff's doctoral work, although he has had to speed up the writing of his dissertation. Struloeff will start at Stanford in late September.

As one of several projects, Struloeff plans to finish a collection of poems titled "The Man I Was Supposed to Be." The collection is based on his experiences growing up in northwestern Oregon along the Columbia River.

"I find myself living there in my writing," he said. "For me that's the most fascinating stuff to work with."

The fellowship program was created by Stegner, the acclaimed novelist and former director of the Stanford Creative Writing Program whose work has largely focused on the history and people of the American West.

The only requirement for the fellows is attendance at a twice-weekly workshop with a program faculty member and the other Stegner fellows in the genre. The fellows will work toward improving their craft and preparing book manuscripts.

Former Stegner Fellows include renowned authors Raymond Carver, Larry McMurtry, Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass, Lan Samantha Chang, Edward Abbey, Tillie Olsen, Tobias Wolff and Scott Turow.

CONTACT: John Struloeff, (402) 742-5084