Lynne Graft
Instructor of English Appointed to SVSU in 1988
M.A. Central Michigan University
B.S. Central Michigan University
GRANT
Ruth Sawyers, Lynne Graft, and Kay Harley (all SVSU). "Open House: A Community Celebration of Roethke's Centennial." Michigan Humanities Council. $11,930. 2008.
Funds were allocated to celebrate the centennial of Saginaw's Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Theodore Roethke, with a public forum at Saginaw Valley State University on 10 November 2008. The "Open House" event featured a lecture by Professsor William Heyen, a widely published poet and Roethke scholar, a performance of selected Roethke poems by the local River Junction Poets, and the awarding of prizes to students who participated in the Roethke multi-media contest.
In addition, with Linda Farynk, we hosted a display of editions of Roethke's poetry in the SVSU Zahnow Library and an afternoon tour of the poet's Saginaw home, grave, and other local areas associated with his poetry.
Lynne Graft and Ruth Sawyers created a series of short publications to support the main events and keep Roethke's legacy alive in the community. These included a Roethke Tour Book, a 2009 Roethke Calendar, and a Roethke Poetry Teaching Unit designed for secondary and introductory college literature courses.