Manhattanville Professor is Recipient of Prestigious Fellowship

From the Office of Communications Manhattanville College

Mark Nowak, professor and director of Manhattanville College’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program, is the recipient of a prestigious 2015 Lannan Foundation Fellowship in Poetry. Through its Literary Awards and Fellowship Program, the Foundation, since 1989, has recognized and honored established and emerging writers whose “work is of exceptional quality.”

Nowak is a 2010 Guggenheim fellow and an award-winning poet, social critic, and labor activist, whose writings include The New York Times “Editor’s Choice,” Shut Up Shut Down, and the acclaimed book on coal mining disasters in the US and China, Coal Mountain Elementary.

He founded and directs the Workers Writers School at the PEN American Center in New York City, which offers free creative writing workshops with members of New York City-based workers centers including Domestic Workers United, the Taxi Workers Alliance, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, and the Street Vendor Projects. Nowak has also hosed workshops with trade unions and workers centers around the world including Ford workers via the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union—Netherlands in Amsterdam and The Hague, and Justice for Domestic Workers in London.

Nowak also tracks deaths in the global mining industry on his Coal Mountain website, and is a frequent commentator on mining disasters on television and radio appearing on PBS, BBC, and Al Jazeera.

About Manhattanville College:

Manhattanville College (www.manhattanville.edu) is an independent, co-educational liberal arts institution dedicated to academic excellence and social and civic action. Manhattanville prepares students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community. Located just 30 minutes from New York City, Manhattanville serves 1,700 undergraduate students and 1,000 graduate students from more than 50 countries and 30 states. Founded in 1841, the College offers more than 50 undergraduate areas of study in the arts and sciences, and offers graduate programs in Education, Business, Creative Writing, as well as Continuing and Executive Education programs.