Adjunct Prof. Gigi Thibodeau’s most recent manuscript, “Learning to Tell Time” will be published by the University of Alaska.

It’s been a busy year for adjunct Prof. Gigi Thibodeau.

Thibodeau was selected as the 2009 Jack Kerouac Writer-in-Residence by the English Department personnel committee, has compiled an anthology of UMass Lowell student poetry, was named a finalist for the James Wright Poetry Award, and has recently been notified that her manuscript, “Learning to Tell Time,” won the Midnight Sun Chapbook Contest and will be published later this summer by the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“I am enormously grateful to have been chosen as the Kerouac Writer-in-Residence. The residency afforded me the opportunity to concentrate on my writing for a semester, while teaching just one course,” says Thibodeau.

Prof. Marlowe Miller says, “The Kerouac Writer-in-Residence program has been very important, allowing the University community the chance to study and learn from excellent writers, including previous honorees Andre Dubus III, David Daniel and Major Jackson.”

“Gigi’s work as a poet, an educator and an active member of the community arts scene in Lowell make her a wonderful choice.”

The Kerouac program is sponsored by the Provost’s office and a gift from John Sampas, executor of the Kerouac estate.

Thibodeau’s work with student poets resulted from a collaboration with the Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) of Greater Lowell on a project called The Poetry of Home.

“In honor of the VNA’s centennial, students read poetry relating to the theme of home at a public event at the Mogan Center, and with the design help of Assoc. Prof. Karen Roehr and one of her students, we were able to print an anthology of their work,” says Thibodeau.

Thibodeau’s poetry has appeared in “Mid-American Review,” “Birmingham Poetry Review,” “River Styx,” and “Mudfish,” among other journals.  She is a poetry editor for the “Newport Review.”

Her latest work, “Learning to Tell Time,” is a collection of poems dealing with the ways in which people remember and give name to the past, through their own personal history, the history of their friends and family, or the history of entire nations.

To view her blog, go to http://themagpiesfancy.blogspot.com.

- Sheila_Eppolito