Loren Logsdon to receive Midwestern literature award

2009 MidAmerica Award for the study of Midwestern lit

Eureka College English professor Loren Logsdon has been selected to receive the 2009 MidAmerica Award from the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature. The award recognizes distinguished contributions to the study of Midwestern literature, particularly the award-winner’s body of criticism or scholarship. Logsdon will receive the award at the society’s annual symposium in May.

Logsdon is the editor of “Eureka Studies in Teaching Short Fiction,” which he founded in 2000. The semiannual journal features essays that focus on the teaching of short fiction. He also founded “Eureka Literary Magazine” in 1992 and edited that semiannual journal of short fiction and poetry until 2005.

Logsdon, a 1958 graduate of Eureka College, taught at the college for 22 years and continues to teach part-time. He formerly taught at Western Illinois University for 24 years where he was fiction editor of that institution’s “Mississippi Valley Review” from 1974-1991.

Logsdon co-edited with Nancy Perkins the textbook “Adult Literacy: Mastering the Basics.” He also co-edited with Charles Mayer “Since Flannery O’Connor: Essays in the Contemporary American Short Story.” Other scholarly work includes articles in “Midwestern Miscellany,” entries for authors Ray Bradbury and Robert Herrick in the first volume of the Dictionary of Midwestern Literature and a survey of Illinois literature for Volume 2 of that publication. He also published a lengthy article on Mark Twain’s “Life on the Mississippi” and articles on Ray Bradbury’s work. Recently he published short creative writing pieces in “Fine Lines.”

Logsdon received a master’s degree from the University of Illinois and a doctorate from Ohio University.

The Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature based at Michigan State University has presented the MidAmerica Award since 1977. The society supports the study and dissemination of work in Midwestern literature, art, film and scholarly study.

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Contact:

Michele Lehman

Media Relations Coordinator

mlehman@eureka.edu

(309) 467-6318