Stadler Center for Poetry & Literary Arts

ve Taylor founded West Branch, a semiannual magazine publishing poetry and fiction by writers from all over the United States, and a related annual two-day poetry festival. In 1982, Wheatcroft established the Poet-in-Residence program, which brings a distinguished poet to campus during the spring semester. In 1985, he founded the Bucknell Seminar for Younger poets, which gathers a dozen promising undergraduate poets from Bucknell and other schools for three weeks of intensive study each June. Formally established and dedicated in 1988 with the generous assistance of Bucknell alumnus Jack Stadler ’40 and his wife Ralynn, the Stadler Center for Poetry brought the university’s existing poetry programs together under one roof and under a central administrative structure. Bucknell Hall, an historic, recently renovated campus building, was pressed into service as the Center’s home. A chapel and recital hall in its former life, the Hall features an expansive auditorium on its first floor, providing an ideal space for poetry readings. Its basement houses faculty and administrative offices and the Mildred Martin Library and Lounge, containing a collection of contemporary poetry titles and standard reference works. A major benefactor of the Center, professor of English Mildred Martin taught modern poetry and fiction at Bucknell for over thirty years. At the Center’s dedication ceremony, President Gary Sojka remarked, “The designation of a particular building for poetry is quite unprecedented on undergraduate American campuses… It’s impossible to imagine a university of stature that does not have strong programs in poetry. The Stadler Center for Poetry we hope, and have every reason to believe, will contribute not only to the strength of this institution, but also to Poetry, and in a larger sense to our culture.”

Ensuing years witnessed the foundation of the Philip Roth Residence in Creative Writing and the Sandra and Gary Sojka Visiting Poet Series. The Philip Roth Residence, named for Bucknell’s distinguished literary alumnus, provides an emerging writer four months of writing time to complete a first or second book, without academic obligations. The Sojka series, funded by the former university president and his wife, brings a distinguished poet to campus for a two-day visit each fall. In 1998, Cynthia Hogue, the Center's second director, established the Stadler Fellowship (originally called the Stadler Internship) which offers a recent MFA graduate training in literary editing and arts administration while providing the Fellow time to work on his or her manuscript. The Center and its programs have continued to prosper under the guidance of Shara McCallum, the third and current director, who formally adopted the Center’s first mission statement in 2003:

The Stadler Center for Poetry seeks to foster in a wide and varied audience an appreciation for the diversity and richness of contemporary poetry and the other literary arts. We also provide support for writers at various stages of their development and careers. In addition to consolidating and honing the Center’s programs, McCallum has infused those programs with a rich diversity, bringing writers from wide-ranging aesthetic and ethnic backgrounds for readings and residencies. She has also firmly established the Center as the seat of Bucknell’s growing creative writing program. At present, the Center is a virtual hive of energy and activity, with students, faculty, and visiting writers coming and going at all times of the year. Five full-time creative writing faculty members have their offices in the Center. Poetry reading and writing groups meet regularly in the Mildred Martin Library, which also serves as a venue for meetings, consultations, and quiet study. West Branch continues to publish two print issues per year and now four online issues per year, with the assistance of several undergraduate interns. Bucknell students continue to be enriched by the Center’s readings and residencies, and poets and writers from around the country continue to profit from its programs. In 2008, the Stadler Center celebrated its twentieth anniversary.