Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 4/2/09 Section: Features

Media Credit: Courtesy of Andrew Altschul Andrew Altschul, the new director of SJSU's Center for Literary Arts.

After months of searching for a permanent director for the Center for Literary Arts and creative writing fiction teacher, a seven-member committee of faculty and administrators made its final decision.

"There's probably nothing that we do for the health of the university and our programs that's more important than hiring new talent," said Professor Paul Douglass, chair of the committee set up to hire the new director and teacher.

That new director and English faculty member is Andrew Altschul.

"I'm really excited by the prospect of having a new colleague come here who's going to energize us again," Douglass said. "When you hire a new person, that's new energy. You get new ideas."

Altschul, a former lecturer at Stanford University, has written many short stories for literary journals and for anthologies such as "You Are Not Here and Other Works of Buddhist Fiction," "Best New American Voices 2006" and "O. Henry Prize Stories 2007."

He also has his own book, "Lady Lazarus," which is a finalist for the 2009 Northern California Book Award in the fiction category.



THE CENTER OF ATTENTION

The Center for Literary Arts is a program associated with the English department and the College of Humanities and the Arts. Activities for the center have included free lectures, book readings and signings and Q-and-A sessions with creative writers, according to the center's Web site.

"The Center for Literary Arts brings major authors, and it's the best reading series outside of San Francisco," Douglass said.



GOING IN A NEW DIRECTION

The search for the center's new director has been a long process for the seven appointed committee members.

"It all started back in October and November," Douglass said, "when we first started getting applications and reading them and discussing who the best candidates are and finally bringing it down to the end where we make a job offer."

From the hundreds of applications across America, the hiring committee narrowed the pool of possible candidates to a smaller group of 15 to 20, and then four candidates were invited to SJSU.

All four finalists - Michael Mejia of Berry College; David Vann of Florida State University; Eric Puchner, also of Stanford, and Atschul, met with the English department's faculty members, creative writing students and the hiring committee.

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