{"id":3718,"date":"2021-05-09T09:45:20","date_gmt":"2021-05-09T09:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=3718"},"modified":"2021-05-09T09:45:20","modified_gmt":"2021-05-09T09:45:20","slug":"wtamu-announces-multimillion-dollar-poet-laureate-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=3718","title":{"rendered":"WTAMU Announces Multimillion-Dollar Poet Laureate Gift"},"content":{"rendered":"

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West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) officials announced a $2.8 million gift from the estate of the late Dr. Jenny Lind Porter Scott, a former Texas poet laureate and WTAMU assistant professor of English. The gift will endow three professorships and a scholarship fund, as well as expand the holdings and programs of Cornette Library\u2019s Texas Poets\u2019 Corner.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Porter, who published her first poem at age fourteen, served as Texas poet laureate in 1964 and 1965, was the author of several collections and books, and was named to the Texas Women\u2019s Hall of Fame in 1985. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cJenny Lind Porter valued literacy. This is a fundamental concept that is deeply appreciated and valued by all here at WT,\u201d University President Dr. Walter Wendler said at the announcement. \u201cIn the University\u2019s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World<\/em>, we have made a commitment to provide distinctive academic resources and programs to students. The Texas Poets\u2019 Corner does just that.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cJenny Lind\u2019s vision for the Texas Poets\u2019 Corner and its mission is to be a place that will expose the students of WTAMU to fine poetry, literature, music, and art, as well as Texas history through lectures and performances,\u201d Shawna Kennedy-Witthar, Cornette Library\u2019s director of information and library resources, said. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Porter began donating her collection of rare books, art, and antique furnishings to WTAMU more than twenty years ago, leading to the establishment of the <\/span>Texas Poets\u2019 Corner<\/strong><\/span><\/a> in 2003. At the core of the collections are approximately 1,800 rare books, numerous pieces of furniture, artwork, photographs, and manuscripts, including first editions of Nathaniel Hawthorne\u2019s The Scarlet Letter<\/em> and The House of the Seven Gables<\/em>; a first edition of Emily Dickinson\u2019s Poems, Second Series<\/em>; a collection of poems by Francis Scott Key, thought to include the first appearance of \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d in a book; and O. Henry\u2019s original, handwritten manuscript for his short story \u201cA Fog in Santone.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The gift also will be used to create a permanent acquisition fund for the Poets\u2019 Corner. \u201cIn keeping with Jenny Lind\u2019s wishes, Sidnye Johnson and her staff will annually add one or two significant pieces of literature and\/or art, including literary portraits, to the collection, host arts and humanities events, and along with those appointed to professorships, promote research of the collection and acquisition of poetry,\u201d Kennedy-Witthar said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Part of the gift will create a $160,000 scholarship fund, which will disperse awards annually for the Department of Communication and through a creative writing contest in the Department of English, Philosophy and Modern Languages. Porter\u2019s gift will also establish three professorships in the departments of English, history, and communications. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Texas poetry news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[63,9,8,22,64],"class_list":["post-3718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-library","tag-lonestarliterarylife","tag-lonestarliterarycom","tag-newsbrief","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}