Collaboration between Art, English departments pay off for writer

Collaboration between the Art and English departments at Pittsburg State paid off for a longtime professor turned author: it propelled her book forward, leading it to be chosen as one of 10 finalists for an elite prize by the Association of Writers & Writing Programs.

The book, "Would You Give Up Arms for Wings? A story inspired by the visionary life and writings of Paulus Berensohn," was written by S. Portico Bowman and is a finalist for the AWP Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction.

Bowman, now a professor of art emeritus, said she is grateful to Art Department chair Jamie Oliver for early support in 2019, while she still was a faculty member, of her research at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art and of taking time away from teaching to focus on writing.

She also is grateful to English Department faculty for their professional and personal support over the years. In Fall 2004, Bowman audited Professor Kathy De Grave's creative writing course, and in Spring 2005, Professor Laura Lee Washburn's poetry course.

Professor Casie Hermansson's recent invitation to write an essay about the creation of the book for the Midwest Quarterly, edited by Associate Professor Lori Martin, was "not only a circle of achievement but a milestone of sorts," Bowman said.

"The creative cross-pollination between Grubbs and Porter Hall contributes to the Pitt State environment in which faculty can live the model of growth and discovery," she added. "None of this would be happening were it not for my life in Pittsburg."

Bowman said she also was grateful for the generous financial support from the Canada Council for the Arts, and her writing mentor, Booker Prize nominee Alison Pick.

Bowman's first novel, "Cashmere Comes From Goats,"was published by Stonehouse Publishing in 2022.