The faculty of the Department of English is pleased to announce that Laurie Kutchins has been appointed the first Roop Distinguished Professor of English Studies for the period January 2008-December 2010. 

The Roop Professorship is awarded for a period of three years to a full-time faculty member in English holding the rank of associate or full professor who has achieved national eminence in the discipline for scholarship. 

Professor Kutchins has published three books and her work, which has also appeared in such prestigious publications as The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, and The Georgia Review, has been honored with the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, and with Pushcart and Pulitzer Prize nominations, among others.  In addition, Professor Kutchins has played a significant role in bringing the arts to life in the classroom, in workshops, and in the JMU Works in Progress series she founded in 2003.  Her most recent book, Slope of the Everlasting Child, was published in the fall of 2007 by BOA Editions, Ltd.