creative writing unc chapel hill

Michael McFee

Doris Betts Term Professor

M.A. in English, UNC-Chapel Hill, 1978

A.B. in English, UNC-Chapel Hill, 1976

A native of Asheville, Michael McFee ’76 has taught in the Creative Writing Program at UNC-Chapel Hill since 1990. He is the author of eleven books of poetry—including five published by Carnegie Mellon University Press: We Were Once Here , That Was Oasis , Shinemaster , Earthly , and Colander —and two collections of essays, Appointed Rounds: Essays (Mercer University Press) and The Napkin Manuscripts: Selected Essays and an Interview (University of Tennessee Press). He has received the James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South, from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award from the Western North Carolina Historical Association.

Publications:

• A Long Time to Be Gone.  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2022. [One of twelve collections of poetry written by MM.]
• The Smallest Talk.  Durham, N.C.: Bull City Press, 2007. [One of twelve collections of poetry written by MM.]
• Sad Girl Sitting on a Running Board.  Frankfort, Kentucky: Gnomon Press, 1991. [One of twelve collections of poetry written by MM.]
• Appointed Rounds: Essays . Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, February 2018.  [One of two books of essays written by MM.]
• The Language They Speak Is Things to Eat: Poems by Fifteen Contemporary North Carolina Poets,  edited by Michael McFee. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994. Second printing, 1999.  [One of three anthologies edited by MM.]

Teaching Awards

• Students’ Undergraduate Teaching Award, 2004.
• Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professorship, 2000-2005.
• James M. Johnston Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1998.
• Students’ Undergraduate Teaching Award, UNC-Chapel Hill, 1994.
• North Carolina Award in Literature, 2018
• Order of the Golden Fleece, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2017.
• “Graduate of Distinction,” T. C. Roberson High School, Skyland, NC, 2015.
• R. Hunt Parker Memorial Award for Literary Achievement, North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, 2010.
• Women’s Leadership Council Faculty Mentoring Award, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2010.
• James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South, from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, 2009.
• Thomas Wolfe Literary Award, Western North Carolina Historical Association, 2006.
• Poets’ Prize (New York City) for best poetry book of year in U.S., 2003 (runner-up).
• Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry, N.C. Literary & Historical Association, 2001 (co-winner).
• Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty, UNC-Chapel Hill, 1999.
• “Indies” Arts Award, The Independent Weekly , Durham, NC (for “particularly praiseworthy artistic contributions to the Triangle community”), 1996.
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing–Poetry, 1987-88.
• Ingram Merrill Foundation Fellowship–Poetry and Fiction, 1986.
• North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship–Poetry, 1985-86.
• Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, 1981-82.
• Discovery/ The Nation Award, 1980.

Courses Taught:

• ENG 131, Introduction to Poetry Writing
• ENG 133H, First-Year Honors Introduction to Poetry Writing
• ENGL 207, Intermediate Poetry Writing
• ENG 407, Advanced Poetry Writing
• ENG 693H and ENG 694H, Senior Honors in Poetry Writing [a year-long seminar]

Curriculum Vitae / Resume

Research interests:, faculty type.

New Writing Faculty Share Surprising Connections

Looking for a story about love and war? Perhaps a gripping tale of a traveler’s journey to exotic and dangerous places? Maybe a clever yarn on the merits of trout fishing?

The two newest writers to join Carolina’s creative writing program share surprising connections with the donors who created the distinguished professorships and their namesakes that brought them to Chapel Hill.

They bring an “infectious energy” to a teaching roster already brimming with collegial colleagues and a top national reputation, said Daniel Wallace, the program director and J. Ross MacDonald Distinguished Professor of English.

Gabrielle Calvocoressi, a poet, is the first Walker Percy Fellow in Creative Writing. Stephanie Elizondo Griest, a non-fiction author, is the inaugural Margaret R. Shuping Fellow in Creative Writing.

“The creative writing program is one of the public faces of Carolina,” said Wallace. “Literature-loving alumni want to be part of our program, and they’re the ones who help us maintain its historical excellence. We’re so grateful for to the donors for making it possible for Gaby and Stephanie to join us and teach our next generation of writers.”

Bard of the Bayou

It began with a chance meeting of two teenagers on a South Carolina beach nearly 45 years ago.

One of the teenagers was the daughter of Walker Percy, a 1937 Carolina alumnus and among the nation’s most iconic writers of the 20 th century. The other teenager went on to graduate from Carolina and has a successful career in business and writing. In 2009, his family established a $1 million distinguished professorship to honor the lifelong friendship between the two families that started with the serendipitous beach encounter.

The Walker Percy Distinguished Professorship in Creative Writing recognizes the life and work of the great novelist.

The donor, who prefers anonymity, said that he didn’t want to miss the opportunity to name a professorship for Percy at Carolina.

“The professorship is good for Walker Percy and his family and good for the University,” the donor said.

His relationship with the Percy family continued over the years through correspondence, family gatherings and even a fishing trip for speckled trout in 1973 with the famed author in a Sunfish, a small sailboat, at Gulf Shores, Ala. As a high school student, the donor was so influenced by Percy that he wrote a poem about the bayou for him that placed fifth in an Atlantic Monthly competition. Percy wrote a recommendation letter for him to attend Carolina.

From his childhood in Birmingham, to the loss of his parents and his teenage years in Greenville, Mississippi, Percy’s life is detailed in numerous books, articles and in the 2011 PBS documentary, Walker Percy .

Percy began his freshman year at Carolina in 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression, studying chemistry. After graduation, he entered Columbia University’s medical school, earning his degree in 1941. He contracted tuberculosis in 1942 during an internship at New York’s Bellevue Hospital, later returning to teach. After a relapse, he left medicine for good and began his writing career.

Percy married Mary Bernice Townsend in 1946, and they returned to the South, eventually to Covington, La., where they raised daughters Ann and Mary.

He wrote six bestsellers, including three that earned many honors and awards: The Moviegoer (1962); Love in the Ruins (1972); and The Second Coming (1980). In addition, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book won the St. Louis Literary Award in 1986. Percy died in Covington in May 1990, at 74.

Like Percy, Calvocoressi earned a graduate degree at Columbia University — hers is an MFA.   Percy wrote The Moviegoer ; her family owned a second-run movie theater and a drive-in. Both were 13 when they lost a parent to suicide — Percy’s father and Calvocoressi’s mother. And they were raised by family members other than their parents.

“Writing is so much about going outside yourself and making connections, meeting someone you never expected to meet, like the chance encounter on a beach,” Calvocoressi said. “With students now so attached to technology, it’s a real challenge to get them to make those associations.

“I’ll tell them to take the long way to class. Don’t use your iPhone. I’ll ask the question, ‘What did you see today?’ Writing a poem comes from the ability to take a moment and put these connections together,” said Calvocoressi, who is teaching honors poetry and introductory poetry her first semester.

A Connecticut native, Calvocoressi attended Choate Rosemary Hall and earned her bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College. After graduation, she spent two years working as a secretary at a day school while writing in the evenings.

Her two poetry books, The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart and Apocalyptic Swing won critical acclaim. From 2000 to 2002, she was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, and she later taught at California College of Arts in San Francisco and Warren Wilson College near Asheville.

She first learned of UNC as an undergraduate when Randall Kenan, now an associate professor of English at Carolina, taught her class as a visiting writer at Sarah Lawrence. After his term ended, his students heard that he was bound for Chapel Hill.

“After that, UNC was always on my mind, even though I’d never been here,” Calvocoressi said.  “One of the great things about teaching at Carolina is that it’s an invitation to become immersed in learning more about its writers like Walker Percy.”

Pioneering women

Margaret Russell had just graduated from Carolina when the love of her life was across the Atlantic and preparing to invade Normandy.

Hampton Shuping, like so many men, had interrupted his studies for the war. He survived D-Day, and was then transferred in 1945 to the naval base in Coronado, Calif. After Hampton proposed, Margaret, along with her mother and aunt, traveled for days by train from the family home in Richlands, N.C., to San Diego, to marry Hampton. The couple eventually returned to N.C. where Hampton completed his UNC degree in business in 1947 and became an executive with textile giant J.P. Stevens & Co. in Greensboro.

When she earned her journalism degree in May 1944, Margaret was among a pioneering group of women who pursued this emerging career choice. She worked briefly at the Greensboro Daily News before she married and became a full-time homemaker and civic volunteer. Margaret kept her dynamic personality until her death in 2000.

Sallie Shuping-Russell ’77, one of Hampton and Margaret’s five children, said that there was always a sense that her mother was a part of her father’s success. In 2008, she established a $1 million fund that would become the Margaret R. Shuping Distinguished Professorship in Creative Writing.

“Mama loved Carolina,” said Shuping-Russell. “She believed in taking the high road but also felt strongly about standing up for yourself and others, even if they were unpopular positions. She was pretty spectacular.”

Shuping-Russell, who earned her MBA from Columbia and is managing director of BlackRock investment firm in New York, is a member of Carolina’s Board of Trustees and served on the Arts and Sciences Foundation Board of Directors. The professorship that honors her mother also recognizes the love of books that Margaret shared with her children.

“Today we spend so much time surrounded by technology. The professorship reflects my firm belief that literature conveys the human condition and promotes humanness in a way that technology cannot,” Shuping-Russell said.

A half-century after Margaret Russell helped forge new territory for women, Stephanie Elizondo Griest was a new graduate of the University of Texas, a double major in journalism and post-Soviet studies. After graduation, she lived in Beijing as a Henry Luce Scholar, editing and teaching journalism at China Daily , a Beijing newspaper. In 2012, she completed her MFA at the University of Iowa.

Her travels have taken her to more than 40 countries, with many of her experiences documented in her books Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana ; Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines ; and the guidebook 100 Places Every Woman Should Go .

Griest has documented the human condition at its grittiest levels, from an orphanage in Russia to borderland conflicts in Texas and, in her current research, in upstate New York at the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne. As a journalist for the Associated Press in Austin, she covered George W. Bush’s last legislative session as governor and his bid for the presidency. She has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post and Latina Magazine , among many other publications.

The Corpus Christi native — who said she does not own a smart phone — traces her wanderlust to her great-great Uncle Jake, a “hobo” on her father’s side of the family, and to her mother’s ancestors who were America’s first real cowboys, the Mexican ranch workers on Texas’s famed King Ranch.

An enthusiastic teacher, Griest most recently was a visiting professor of creative writing at St. Lawrence University, and has taught at many writers’ conferences.

“Teaching is pure magic,” she said.

[ Story by Del Helton ]

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The department of english & comparative literature celebrates 225 years of rhetoric, writing, film and literature at carolina, find out ways to support the department of english & comparative literature..

Meet our New Fiction Writing Professor, Gabriel Bump

“that’s enough culture for one day”: a book club discussion of everywhere you don’t belong with author gabriel bump hosted by daniel wallace .

Hear UNC’s talented student poets and converse with our published authors!

An evening with creative writing at carolina: poets’ speak out 225 & a salon with creative writing professors.

Learn about the first Latina/o Program in the Southeast!

“the unc latina/o studies program: past present and future. 22 years of culture and exploration at unc chapel hill with conversation/charla”.

Hear about the engaging work of ECL undergraduate majors!

What does it mean to be an e(nglish) and c(omparative) l(iterature) major today.

You can go home again! Take a virtual class with a favorite prof.

Back to the classroom.

Keynote Lecture

Trudier harris, “are we literate yet adventures in education, politics, and culture”.

Thomas Wolfe Lecture, Frank Bruni

Jill McCorkle, “Ambiguity” 

Concert with Alumni

Recording of tift merritt & joseph terrell, followed by live q&a, timeline of 225 years of rhetoric, writing, film and literature at carolina.

Support Music at UNC

Songwriting

Welcome to the songwriting studies program at the unc community music scho ol.

“It’s therapy. It’s fun. It’s creative. I love getting on a big writing binge and staying up a couple days working on song and knowing at the end of those two or three days that I’ve created something that was never in the world before.” Dolly Parton

Private Songwriting Lessons with Rachel Despard

For beginner-intermediate songwriters. Lessons include popular lyrical structure and chord progressions, healthy pop vocal technique, song feedback and collaboration, and performance practices.

• Ages: 6 and up. Adults welcome.
• Class Time: 30, 45, and 60 minute lessons available
• Tuition: $65 per hour

Writing Coaching

Face-to-face coaching, asynchronous online coaching, online tips and tools, writing coaches regularly help students with:.

• Getting Started: Review your assignment, brainstorm, organize your ideas, and start writing!
• Clarity: Get a coach’s reactions and feedback.
• Making your case: Learn to incorporate evidence, write an effective thesis statement, and test the strength of your argument.
• Different kinds of writing: Find out how to write for different courses, contexts, and audiences.
• Revision Strategies: Write a reverse outline, highlight your paper in a color-coding technique, or even take scissors to your draft to identify opportunities for revision.
• Flow: Make your sentences, paragraphs, and overall organization easier for readers to follow.
• Citation, Style, and Sentence-Level Concerns: Experiment with new proofreading strategies, consult resources on citation and usage, and discuss grammar and punctuation questions.

Take an inside look at the Writing Center: How Writing Coaching supports students

The Writing Center makes an effort to make sure every student is comfortable. Katharine Shriver

Creative Writing

News Archive

Samuel Gee awarded Thomas Wolfe Scholarship in creative writing

Incoming first-year student Samuel Gee of Easley, S.C., has been awarded a 2017 Thomas Wolfe Scholarship, a full, four-year merit scholarship in creative writing in the College of Arts & Sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Gee graduated from the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, S.C., in June. He attended two summers of his school’s Discovery and Academy writing programs and participated in the Adroit Journal ’s mentorship program in poetry. He has won a gold medal and honorable mention in poetry from the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards competition and has had work published in Teenage Wasteland Review.

He counts Flannery O’Connor, David Foster Wallace and Ray Bradbury among his favorite authors and writes that “I’ll probably need glasses before I turn thirty. There’s a waist-high stack of books on my floor.”

In addition to writing, he enjoys hobbies that include chess, Ultimate Frisbee and Appalachian music. He has traveled to New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte, London, and Washington, D.C.

In a one-sentence biography in his application, Gee wrote: “I used to go three days without sleeping, days when I’d get off work at 11 p.m. on a Tuesday and read until 3, write until 6, make breakfast for my mother, drive my sister to school, and do it all again out of sheer unashamed love.”

When asked, what sort of writing do you most enjoy, Gee writes:

“I enjoy writing that has its own swagger, writing that forces the language into a dark alley and shakes its pockets empty, writing that makes me feel smaller in the world.”

Creative writing professor Marianne Gingher, co-director of the Thomas Wolfe Scholarship program, said the committee was charmed by “the intelligence, liveliness and humor of Gee’s prose.”

“As a talented practitioner of the personal essay, he manages to be both funny and honest, with a keen eye for detail and a keen ear for dialogue,” Gingher said. “It was apparent to all of us who read his work, that Sam Gee is a young writer of impressive gifts who has lived a carefully examined life, but doesn’t take that life too seriously. He’s a writer who makes you laugh and think at the same time —how rare is that?”

The scholarship program was established in 2001 with a gift to the College from alumnus Frank Borden Hanes Sr. of Winston-Salem. It honors Carolina graduate Thomas Wolfe, best known for his 1929 novel, Look Homeward, Angel.

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Focus Capacities

Design your course of study! Choose from hundreds of courses to fulfill your nine focus capacities and find the courses that challenge and inspire you! By studying different topics from a variety of perspectives and learning to identify problems, weigh evidence, make reasoned judgments, and take action, you will be equipped to make a meaningful contribution in the classroom, your career, and your community. You will leave Carolina with an expanded toolkit of critical skills that you can put to good use, wherever life takes you!

Recurring Capacities

In every course you will have an opportunity to write, to collaborate with peers, and to present material in a variety of settings and methods. Why? Learning requires repeated practice over time in different contexts. Encountering these recurring capacities in different courses strengthens your development of these essential capacities for future study, life, and career success.

“The common learning goals across each Focus Capacity allows students the flexibility to choose the context in which they encounter new and challenging ideas. This is part of both the structure and flexibility of this curriculum.”

Kelly Hogan Professor of Biology

Course Requirements

Focus Capacity courses ensure that you encounter a broad array of academic ideas, approaches, and information across the liberal arts, as well as develop crucial capacities for future study and life. Students take one course for each of the nine Focus Capacity requirements (3 credits each). One Focus Capacity course must include or be associated with a one-credit Empirical Investigation Lab.

A course may be listed under two Focus Capacity categories. However, a single course may be used to fulfill only one Focus Capacity requirement (not including lab).

Some courses in this category may double count with:

Disciplinary Distribution

All students must take at least one general education course in each of the three major divisions of the College of Arts and Sciences :

• Humanities and fine arts
• Mathematics and natural sciences
• Social and behavioral sciences

The courses may come from any of these requirements:

• First-Year Seminar/First-Year Launch
• Focus Capacity
• Research and Discovery
• High Impact Experience

Anti-Israel protesters vandalize UNC Chapel Hill chancellor's office, smear red paint on building

Posted: May 11, 2024 | Last updated: May 12, 2024

A group of anti-Israel agitators gathered in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Saturday to vandalize the office of UNC Chapel Hill's chancellor, with multiple protesters smearing red paint and writing swear words on the building. Credit: The Image Direct for Fox News Digital

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Here’s Everything You Need to Know About UNC’s Spring 2024 Commencement

Posted by Michael Koh | May 11, 2024 | UNC

UNC will celebrate its Spring 2024 Commencement this weekend. It’s typically one of the busiest weekends of the year around Chapel Hill, and this year is no different. Here’s everything you need to know:

The Ceremony

A major change for UNC’s Spring 2024 commencement is the day: the main ceremony will be held on Saturday, May 11, as opposed to Sunday. It’s scheduled to start at 7 p.m. in Kenan Stadium.

“We have moved to an evening ceremony to provide a more celebratory atmosphere for our graduates,” the university said, “and offer families coming from long distances more time to return home on Sunday.”

Graduates should arrive in the Loudermilk parking lot at 5:30 p.m. to be ready for the ceremony. Graduates will need to present a One Card to proceed to the stadium seating area. Staff will be on hand to direct.

For guests, Kenan Stadium gates 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 will open at 6 p.m. Wheelchair seating is located near the Kenan Football Center, between Gates 3 and 5. Guests are encouraged to leave bags at home, but clear bags are allowed in the stadium. Kenan Stadium’s Clear Bag Policy can be found here, as well as a list of prohibited items for both guests in the stands and students on the field. Hydration stations will be available, and guests are also encouraged to bring refillable water bottles.

The keynote speaker is Zena Cardman, an astronaut who received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at UNC. She is the commander of NASA’s Crew-9 mission, which will launch to the International Space Station later this year.

A livestream will be available for viewing both in the stadium and remotely. A link will be posted on the commencement website on the day of the ceremony and will be streamed on the university’s YouTube channel .

UNC lists the inclement weather date and time as Sunday, May 12 at 9 a.m.

Parking and Transit Options

The following public parking lots will be open between 4 p.m. and 11 p.m. on the day of the ceremony:

• Ehringhaus Lot
• Craige Deck
• Forest Theatre
• Graham Circle
• Jackson Deck
• Dogwood Deck

Shuttles are not provided from these locations.

Chapel Hill Transit will provide shuttle service from the Friday Center Park and Ride lot to Kenan Stadium Gate 2. The buses will operate continuously from 5 p.m. until approximately 45 minutes after the end of the ceremony, which will likely be 9:30 p.m. Return service from Kenan Stadium begins immediately following the ceremony and runs continuously for 45 minutes.

Carolina Livery will also operate shuttles from the Manning Lot, Bowles Lot and Cardinal Deck to Kenan Stadium Gate 6, with the same schedule as the Chapel Hill Transit shuttle.

For more transit information, click here.

Smaller Department Ceremonies

Smaller departmental ceremonies will take place throughout the week. To find your individual ceremony, click here. UNC recommends reaching out directly to the department for specific ceremony details.

The Graduate School’s Doctoral Hooding ceremony is scheduled for Saturday at 9 a.m. in the Dean Smith Center. For more information on that ceremony, click here.

What else is happening on campus?

The UNC baseball team is hosting a three-game series against Louisville at Boshamer Stadium from Friday through Sunday. Students and families using Ridge Road, which is the only way to get to Boshamer Stadium, should plan to accommodate for game traffic.

Featured image via UNC/Johnny Andrews

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• Night Music

Congratulations, Class of 2024

Celebrating our newest alumni.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill celebrated the graduation of over 6,700 Tar Heels this weekend at the Doctoral Hooding and Spring Commencement. Thousands of friends and family members applauded their achievements and success of our graduates. Class of 2024, congratulations! After navigating a pandemic at the onset of your collegiate journey and years of hard work, late nights and determination, you've now joined the proud ranks of Tar Heel alumni.

Every graduating class deserves a day of celebration and reflection, and this one more than most. Many of you missed out on high school graduation and on the rites and recognition that normally mark the transition into college. You bore the brunt of the pandemic lockdowns, and then, you found ways to rekindle public life at Carolina after it was brought to a standstill.

Interim Chancellor Lee H. Roberts

There are opportunities, everywhere, to contribute to something larger than ourselves. We just must be curious, open and ready to jump right in.

Angeli Achrekar ’13 (DrPH), Doctoral Hooding speaker

Carolina, I know you can accomplish great things. You already have, and you don’t need my advice. I will only suggest that the definition of “great things” — of success or fulfillment — is entirely up to you, and the path won’t always be obvious. The best journeys begin at Carolina, and mine did too.

Zena Cardman ’10, ’14 (MS) , Spring Commencement speaker

Photos from Spring Commencement

It was a joyous and beautiful evening for UNC-Chapel Hill's first nighttime Commencement ceremony at Kenan Stadium. (Photos by Johnny Andrews and Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

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Relive the celebrations

Carolina celebrates the Class of 2024 under the lights

The 6,700-plus Tar Heel graduates received words of wisdom from astronaut Zena Cardman ’10, ’14 (MS) at a ceremony presided over by Interim Chancellor Lee H. Roberts.

Doctoral hooding speakers encourage curiosity

Encouraging a “culture of openness,” they charged graduates to stay collaborative and committed to service.

Look back at the Class of 2024’s big night

In this video from Carolina’s Spring Commencement, watch the celebration and catch the fireworks.

Meet the Class of 2024

The Class of 2024 excelled in the classroom, conducted research, won national championships and served their country. They've made lasting impacts on our campus community and left their heelprints on Carolina.

Campus ceremonies celebrate graduates

Ahead of Spring Commencement, Carolina graduates celebrated their achievements at ceremonies around campus.

The Class of 2024 writes a letter to Carolina

Through social media submissions, graduates share how the University has impacted their lives.

Watch Zena Cardman’s Spring Commencement speech

The double Tar Heel and NASA astronaut imparted wisdom to Carolina graduates months before she’s set to embark on her first spaceflight.

Regalia has a rich history

The right shade of Carolina Blue and argyle trim are only part of the story behind what the attendees wear.

Rewatch 2024 Spring Commencement and Doctoral Hooding

The University celebrated the achievements of the Class of 2024 at Doctoral Hooding and Spring Commencement ceremonies.

Discover Carolina

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Annual employee awards honor Library staff

The University Libraries has announced the recipients of its 2023 University Librarian’s Meritorious Service Award and Annual Excellence Awards. The awards recognize employees’ exemplary work and efforts to advance the Library’s mission. 

Congratulations to all of the winners! 

University Librarian’s Award for Meritorious Service 

The University Librarian’s Award for Meritorious Service is the Library’s highest honor. It recognizes exceptionally meritorious and transformative work over time or in the face of especially challenging, crisis, or emergency circumstances. 

Aleah Howell, Creative Lead for Library Communications

“It’s nearly impossible to step into a library building on campus – and it is entirely impossible to visit the Library’s online spaces – without experiencing the impact of Aleah’s work,” wrote nominators from the Library Communications team.  

As creative lead for Library Communications since 2017, Howell has led the University Libraries in building a consistent, professional visually communicative presence, and in meeting the visual communications needs of clients across the organization. She led development of the Library’s visual brand, which guides the design of signage, publications, and more across the Libraries. Howell also designs the Libaries’ magazine, Windows , and manages the Library’s video and photography operations. 

“When you see a Library flier or poster, when you receive an invitation to a Library event, when you see something on the Library’s digital screens, when you visit our website, when you get swag with the Library logo carefully placed, when you receive a Library newsletter – these are all items Aleah has designed or produced, or whose development she has directed and approved.” 

Nominators also cited Howell’s outstanding customer service as “a great collaborative partner,” whose drive to elevate the work of her colleagues and the University Libraries is a constant priority; her commitment to accessible design; and the numerous leadership responsibilities she has volunteered for in the department, across the organization and around the University. 

Annual Excellence Awards 

Annual Excellence Awards recognize outstanding workplace efforts or contributions in specific areas, including innovation and problem-solving, inclusive excellence, customer service and leadership. 

Award for Leadership 

Rebecca carlson, health sciences library librarian and liaison to the school of pharmacy .

“Rebecca’s strength as a leader is demonstrated across multiple fronts, including her willingness to mentor her colleagues, direct reports, and HSL graduate assistants,” wrote Interim Associate University Librarian Michelle Cawley and Head of Clinical and Statewide Engagement Sarah Wright. “Her leadership as a mentor is highly valued. 

Since 2020, Carlson has been a peer mentor for all new Health Science Library (HSL) liaison librarians, first meeting with them one-on-one and then serving as an ongoing point of contact once they are established. Carlson served as one of the original directors for the Interprofessional Education and Practice (IPEP) office and continues to serve as an advisor and faculty mentor for students competing in IPEP competitions and to develop programs for IPEP’s Distinguished Scholars program. She developed and leads HSL’s Systematic Review Summer Series, one of the library’s most in-demand services. In 2022, Carlson led a research project demonstrating the impact of librarians on Pharmacy research. 

“As a liaison, Rebecca is skilled, enthusiastic and has a strong love for learning, and these traits are evident in her leadership style as well,” says Karen Grigg, health sciences librarian for collections and instruction. “She makes us feel valued and supported by active listening and advocating for us, and this leads to a positive workplace climate and a feeling that we have a strong Public Health team.” 

Jackie Dean, Head of Archival Processing 

Award for Customer Service 

“I started working at UNC SILS in August 2022 and was nervous about how I would build partnerships with the Libraries,” wrote Elliot Kuecker, teaching assistant professor at the School of Information and Library Science. “So much of this anxiety vanished because of Jackie Dean.” 

Dean reached out to Kuecker after hearing that he was a new faculty member teaching about archival work, giving him a tour of Wilson Library, introducing him to library staff and offering to help his students. They have collaborated since then, with Dean and her team providing hands-on educational experiences for Kuecker’s classes and helping arrange practicum experiences for SILS students. Because of Dean’s efforts, SILS students are more interested in archival work and better prepared when they go on the job market, writes Kuecker. He also notes that Dean’s staff have been instrumental in helping him find resources for his own research. 

“I wanted to nominate Jackie for this award because I do not think that it is always intuitive that technical processing units have anything to do with ‘customer service,’ wrote Kuecker. “When they do, they have incredible impact on bringing about the kinds of sensibilities we all want in libraries and archives, which is the spirit of collaboration, kindness toward new and training professionals, a welcome attitude toward experimenting with different job tasks and a lifting of the veil on the kinds of things that go on in archival processing.” 

Wendy Isicson, Metadata Projects Coordinator 

Award for Inclusive Excellence and Innovation & Problem Solving 

“Wendy has demonstrated exceptional commitment to implementing DEIA values that are making a significant contribution to the cataloging of LGBTQIA+ materials not only within University Libraries but also beyond UNC,” wrote nominators from the Library’s research and description management (RDM) and research and instructional services departments.  

The award recognizes Isicson for making it easier for catalogers to use nuanced terminology in records for LGBTQIA+ materials. She created a computer script that makes it simpler to add subject and genre headings from the “Homosaurus Thesaurus,” an international set of terms used to identify LGBTQI+ materials more precisely. Although she created the macro to meet the needs of catalogers at Carolina, Isicson made it available for any library that contributes to WorldCat, the world’s largest library catalog. 

Responses to the macro have been overwhelmingly positive. “I just installed it, and it’s amazing,” one non-UNC cataloger wrote after using the macro for the first time. “It will save time and effort of going back and forth to the Homosaurus site and help out other non-LGBTQ+ catalogers that might otherwise feel a little overwhelmed for choice.” 

Congratulations, Aleah, Rebecca, Jackie and Wendy!  

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'A catalyst for something bigger': UNC senior presents film empowering Awakatek creativity

There’s no word for “art” in Kayol , also known as,  Awakatek , the Mayan language of UNC senior Brenda Palacios Rodriguez ’s family. Instead, she said art is an inherent part of culture, woven into the fabric of the everyday.

Rodriguez is the director and producer of the documentary film “Creative Roots: Qatanum Expressions,” a spotlight on Indigenous creativity in her ancestral community of Aguacatán, Guatemala.

Raised in Morganton, N.C. but with family in Guatemala, Rodriguez has found a home in both places. She said being the first person in her family expected to graduate college in the United States inspired her to learn more about her community and how she can help.

“That was always really important to me — How can I give back to my community? How can I continue being a resource for everyone there and make sure that all the work that I’ve done becomes a blessing for others?” she said.

Rodriguez, an environmental studies and studio art double major, credits her UNC classes with helping her articulate the issues Indigenous communities face, including globalization, capitalist extraction and cultural loss. She said she also learned about Indigenous cultural empowerment work, which she already recognized in her own community.

“All of these thoughts were trickling in my mind, and I was like, ‘You know what? I think it’s time to share our stories, share our beautiful stories, both the good and the difficulties,’” she said.

Rodriguez began connecting with Awakatek, or  Qatanum,  people in Aguacatán last summer, aided by family and the close-knit community. The John and June Allcott Fellowship  — a grant offered to a UNC studio art or art history major — enabled her to return home to film.

There, Rodriguez connected with five Awakatek creatives , some of whom, like chirimilla players Diego Rodriguez and Diego Mejia Lopez , are the last remaining practitioners of their art, she said.  

Before filming, she spent several days getting to know the artists and learning about the Mayan cosmovision , which describes the interrelationships between nature, the spiritual world and all Mayan peoples through time and space .

Rodriguez originally pictured a 5 to 15 minute video, but as the project progressed, she expanded it to a full-length documentary to do full justice to the artists’ and community’s stories, she said.

“I think this documentary isn’t just a documentary, it’s a catalyst for something bigger — with not only our local Awakatek community, but the other neighboring Indigenous communities we have in our region,” she said.

Last month, Rodriguez presented a behind-the-scenes preview of the film in the Student Union , which is in post-production to add English subtitles  and make the Spanish and Awakatek-language documentary accessible to a global audience.

First-year Ashley Vicente Lopez , whose mother is Awakatek, said that Rodriguez’s film showcases the beauty of her culture. She said Guatemala as a whole can be overlooked, so seeing her own community of Aguacatán was even more special. 

“A lot of things that have been around for so, so long are being lost, and it’s kind of heartbreaking to see,” Lopez said . 

She added that she hopes her mom will be able to teach Awakatek — which Lopez understands but never learned to speak — to her grandchildren.

When the documentary is released, schools across the region will screen it, which Rodriguez hopes will empower youth to engage in their own cultural preservation. Ultimately, she dreams of a nonprofit fund for workshops in Aguacatán so local artists can teach their practices to future generations for free.

Rodriguez hopes the film will inspire all viewers to love, respect and celebrate other cultures, fostering harmonious connections for a globalizing future.

She said when Indigenous people are represented in global media, it’s often by outsiders, but her film brings her own personal connection and relational experiences.

“When so much tough history has happened in your community, it’s hard sometimes for the public to see the positives and the beauty, the resilience of the people,” Rodriguez said.

David Weaver, Rodriguez’s friend and a member of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, finds her project incredibly inspiring as an Indigenous person working to reconnect with his culture, he said.

“My tribe was hit really hard by colonization,” Weaver said. “A lot of our sacred rituals and a lot of our culture has just kind of been erased, and so she is creating a record of preservation so the culture is preserved forever.”

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The film is tentatively projected to be released at the end of summer.

“Everything we do is to help others,” Rodriguez said during her presentation. “At least, that’s my mindset.”

@dthlifesyle | [email protected]

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