WOU Magazine Spring 2011: Feature stories
Two WOU faculty and staff members were finalists for 2011 Oregon Book Awards
Enrollment at Western Oregon University has continued to soar. WOU reached another enrollment record with 6,233 students enrolled fall 2010, an increase of 10 percent over the previous year and 17 percent over the past three years. Growth has grown in both graduate and undergraduate student populations—and the student body is continually increasing in diversity
Scott Carter, an instructional technologist with the Center for Teaching and Learning, won an 2011 Oregon Book Award, and Dr. Henry Hughes, an associate professor of English, was selected as a finalist. More than 200 titles were submitted for the awards, but only 35 were selected for the seven categories.
Carter’s book, The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys of Simon and Schuster, was a finalist in the Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature. Publisher’s Weekly wrote that Carter’s book is a “touching and impressive debut.” Carter was born in Minnesota and was raised in the Willamette Valley. His short stories have appeared in dozens of popular magazines and anthologies. Carter’s second book with Simon and Schuster, Wooden Bones, will be released in summer 2012.
"Even being a finalist was a great privilege—winning was an even bigger honor,” said Carter. “Especially for someone like me, whose day job is not related to my writing, getting that kind of recognition from people who really appreciate literature was a great confidence booster. And without exception the WOU community has been tremendously supportive."
Hughes’ book of poetry, Moist Meridian of Mammoth Books, was a finalist for the Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry. Hughes won a 2004 Oregon Book Award for his other book of poetry, Men Holding Eggs. Hughes grew up on Long Island, New York and has lived in Oregon since 2002. Several of his poems have been published in prestigious publications and anthologies, and his commentary on new poetry appears regularly in the Harvard Review. He is also the editor of the anthology The Art of Angling: Poems about Fishing.