The faculty in John Carroll’s English Department wear many hats, juggling the schedule of a professor while also publishing scholarly and creative work on their own time. Posted on the English Department’s TV and exhibited in the display cases next to the JCU Writing Center are the myriad of accomplishments awarded to English professors at John Carroll. For example, Dr. George Bilgere won the 2023 Rattle Chapbook Prize last spring for his poetry chapbook, “Cheap Motels of My Youth.” There will be a reading in Rodman planned for Bilgere’s chapbook on Tues., March 19 at 5 p.m.
Recently, two English professors received the 2024 Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council (OAC). Dr. Philip Metres received a poetry award for his poetry collection, “Fugitive/Refuge.” Professor Isaiah Hunt, John Carroll University Hopkins Fellow, received a fiction award after submitting his short stories, “Momma’s Boy,” “Jupiter Jumps,” “Arcade Juju” and “A Recipe for Demonte.”
As Hunt expressed, the award requires that the applicants receive a recommendation for the honor, have lived in Ohio for at least one year and must not be students in school. “Technically, I had to wait until I was finished with my master’s. That following year, 2023, was when I had my master’s and I was teaching here, so that’s when I decided to apply,” said Hunt.
Professional panelists in each section review the submitted work using a point-based system to recommend the writer and move them on to the final stage of review. Once selected, the awardee receives a $5,000 grant to continue his or her work and seek publication. For 2024, 75 awardees were selected within the following categories: choreography, criticism, fiction, music composition, non-fiction, playwriting and poetry.
Raised in Maple and Bedford Heights, Hunt admires the “booming literary arts community” in Northeast Ohio, commenting, “We have Lit. Youngstown, we have Lit. Cleveland, Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University and then of course we have the Ohio Arts Council.”
When asked about the moment he received the notification of the award, Hunt recalls noticing an email while teaching class. “I was actually in my Advanced Fiction Writing class and we were discussing a story. Something compelled me to look at my emails…and I saw the email from the Ohio Arts Council right there. That’s when I knew that this was the moment.”
While this marks Metres’ eighth Individual Excellence Award, it still amazes him to receive the accolade. “It’s very prosaic but it’s so gratifying to get an award. Validation early on was super important for me…that a blind peer review jury said that my work was valuable meant a lot to me.”
To Hunt and Metres, these awards not only offer validation but also feedback about the work that they will continue to refine. “Honestly, I was most happy for Isaiah because, at an early phase of your writing career, you really cherish every single time someone says, ‘yes, you’re doing good work and we want to validate that and support you,’” said Metres.
Metres expects to publish his awarded poetry collection, “Fugitive/Refuge,” based on his ancestors’ migration and exile from Lebanon. The book release reading for Metres’ poetry collection will be on April 3 at 7 p.m. in Donahue Auditorium. Meanwhile, a theatrical adaptation of Metres’ 2020 poetry collection, “Shrapnel Maps,” will be hosted in the Marinello Little Theatre on March 21 at 5 p.m. and March 22 at 7 p.m.
As for Hunt, his two short story publications in literary magazines are being finalized for this upcoming summer and he is working on publishing his short story, “Arcade Juju” in the foreign anthology, “Earth 2100,” which will be sold in Barnes and Noble. He plans to complete his short story collection, “2:99 a.m,” which he says resonates best with “late-stage capitalism, black cyberculture, digital necromancy and dream punk.”
To see the rest of the finalists for the 2024 Ohio Individual Excellence Award, visit the Ohio Arts Council.
