Contact: Maridith Geuder
Gary L. Myers
An English professor who helped establish the creative writing program at Mississippi State is the new associate dean of arts and sciences at the university.
Gary L. Myers, who joined the faculty in 1989, primarily will be responsible for academic affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences, which, with 16 departments ranging from art to biological sciences to psychology to physics, is MSU's largest academic unit.
"Dr. Myers has earned the consensus respect and friendship of the college faculty and staff," said Dean Philip B. Oldham. "His experience and leadership in the arts and humanities will ensure a healthy balance in the dean's office."
Recognized with the John Grisham Faculty Excellence Award, Myers directed the university's freshman English program for six years prior to his current assignment.
An active writer, he has published more than 100 poems in magazines and journals that include, among others, the New Yorker, Poetry, Kansas Quarterly, and Louisville Review. His book, "World Effects," earned the Stanley Hanks Poetry Award from the St. Louis Poetry Center. Another book, "Lifetime Possessions," won the Riverstone Press Poetry Prize from the West Chester, Pa.-based publishing house.
Myers holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska, a master of fine arts degree from the Iowa Writers Workshop of the University of Iowa and a doctorate in creative writing from the University of Houston.