George Drew is the author of nine poetry collections, including most recently Drumming Armageddon, which appeared in 2020 from Madville Publishing. In addition, he has a new chapbook, Hog: A Delta Memoir, coming out from Bass Clef Press, and a book of essays titled Just Like Oz that is likewise coming out from Madville. George has won awards such as the South Carolina Review Poetry Prize, the Paumanok Poetry Award, the Adirondack Literary Award, the St. Petersburg Review Poetry Contest, the Knightville Poetry Contest, and, in 2020, the William Faulkner Literary Competition. In 2019 he collaborated with singer/songwriter Rick Kunz on a CD of original poetry and songs entitled A Triumph of Loneliness, KBW Music.
Barry Sarchett (BA 1969)
Barry Sarchett recently retired as Professor of English and of Film and Media Studies at Colorado College. He would like to thank Professors Reed Merrill, Larry Lee, Arthur Hicks, Golden Larsen, and Merrill Lewis, all of whom are long gone from Western but were so important in forming his passion for literature and careful, precise, close reading. Barry has very fond memories of Bellingham and Western.
Norma Petersen (BA 1967, MA 1968)
Drawing on her forty-year career teaching high school and college English, Norma Petersen has completed a manuscript about the benefits of teachers writing with their students. She argues that the practice transforms the classroom into an encouraging community of writers with strengthened relationships and enhanced skills. The manuscript offers many examples for both experienced and beginning teachers and is also suitable for an English methods class.
Vernon Giesbrecht (BA 1967)
Vernon Giesbrecht recently published articles in four different magazines: British Columbia History, Our Canada, The Senior Paper and the Mennonite Historical Society of BC’s Roots & Branches. Moreover, Vern has published an article every year for the past ten years in BC History. His most recent one is a profile of actor and director Antony Holland, whose seventy-year theatrical career flourished until just weeks before his death at the age of ninety-five.
BA 1962: Nora Smith
Nora Smith (BA 1962) is currently “locked up”, like most people are today, in a retirement home in Vancouver, WA. She enjoys hearing from fellow graduates who are in different parts of the state.
1969, MA: George Drew
George Drew (MA 1969) is the author of eight poetry collections, most recently, Fancy’s Orphan (2017), Pastoral Habits: New & Selected Poems (2016), Down & Dirty (2015) and The View from Jackass Hill (2011, winner of the ). Drew has won several awards: the 2016 Knightville Poetry Contest, the 2014 St. Petersburg Review Poetry Contest, 2010 X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize, and the Adirondack Literary Award for Best Poetry Book of 2009.
MA, 1968: Robert B. Tarleck
Robert B. Tarleck (MA, 1968) was the Mayor of the City of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada for three terms. He also has a lifetime membership in the Alberta Teachers’ Association and is a member of the Economic Development Advisory Council of the Province of Alberta.
BA, 1967: Vern Giesbrecht
Vern Giesbrecht (BA, 1967) has become a regular contributor to BC History Magazine, publishing eight articles since the Fall 2012 issue, as well as writing book reviews.
BA, 1966: Steve May
Steve May (BA, 1966) has authored six articles about Emily Dickinson under the pen name Krans Bloeimaand that have been published in the Emily Dickinson Bulletin, an official organ of the Emily Dickinson International Society. A seventh piece will be submitted in time for the fall, 2019 issue.
BA, 1963: Don Martin
Don Martin (BA, 1963) has finished his book detailing his attempt to teach English at a Historically Black University in the Deep South, as well as some reflections on what has happened to the American public education since the mid-20th century. He is presently seeking a publisher.