49 Janet Varnum ’86 WORDS Charles M.P. Sirait PORTRAIT AI, 1947–2010 AI’S NATIONAL AWARDS 2009 United States Artists Ford Fellowship in Literature 1999 National Book Award for Poetry for Vice 1978 Lamont Award for the Best Second Book published in the country, Killing Floor, presented by the Academy of American Poets 1987 American Book Award for Sin presented by the Before Columbus Foundation 1978 and 1985 National Endowment for the Arts awards 1975 Guggenheim Fellowship The Department of English plans to establish a creative writing scholarship in Ai’s memory. Please send contributions to Ai Scholarship, Department of English, 205 Morrill Hall, Stillwater, OK 74078. Please make out checks to the “OSU Foundation.” The memo line should read “Ai Memorial Scholarship Fund in English.” Passing Through: A View from the Train … SHE TURNS BACK TO THE WINDOW TO CATCH THE LAST GLIMPSE OF THE SUNFLOWERS THAT SENT HER THOUGHTS ON A JOURNEY FROM WHICH SHE KNOWS SHE WILL NEVER RETURN, ONLY GO ON AND ON AND THEN JUST GO. — Ai, from “Passage,” from Dread, W.W. Norton (2003) When the poet Ai died March 20, 2010, following a brief illness, she left behind grieving OSU students and faculty and a celebrated body of work that reveals an eloquent insight into human suffering and the triumphant human spirit. She was one of OSU’s most acclaimed scholars and in 2009 became the only Oklahoman to receive a U.S. Artists Ford Fellowship in Literature Award for creativity, a $50,000 prize to encourage artists to continue their work. “I feel really honored,” she said. Ai authored seven books of poetry and won many national literary awards. This September, W.W. Norton & Company will release her eighth book, No Surrender. While people often mistake Ai’s free-verse poetry, typically written as first-person monologues, as autobiographical, her work actually gives voice to people of all ages, races, professions and socioeconomic backgrounds. Her characters, both victims and abusers, range from children to the elderly, predatory priests to war veterans, abusive parents to pop culture icons. “I feel more like a playwright,” she said. “Monologues are a blend of poetry and playwriting where I can be the actor, director and producer — all the roles.” Like one of her favorite writers, Shakespeare, she created characters with fatal flaws and failures, who like Ai often faced “outrageous fortune” in life. “I feel I’ve done pretty well in my career,” she said noting that the U.S. Artists Award represented triumph over a lifetime of challenges. “I could have given in and not gone anywhere with my work, but being a writer, an artist, is so fulfilling. It’s an inspiration. It would keep me going. “I found my gift and took it all the way.”
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