Two Students Earn Klein Fellowships in Creative Writing and Social Justice
September 14, 2017
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Jalynn Harris and Kim Uslin, both students in the University of Baltimore's M.F.A. in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts program, are the recipients of this year's Klein Fellowship in Creative Writing and Social Justice. The fellowship, announced in late 2016, is awarded to an M.F.A. student whose submitted original work demonstrates artistic merit and shows a strong interest in the pursuit of social justice. The fellowship includes a three-year tuition waiver.
The award—provided by UB alumnus Michael F. Klein, B.A. '76—aims to emphasize the role of the arts in calling attention to issues of social justice and injustice in American society.
[IN PHOTO, from left: Kim Uslin, Michael F. Klein, and Jalynn Harris.]
Kendra Kopelke, professor and program director for the M.F.A., notes that this year's selection of two fellowship winners is unusual. The program calls for a single fellow to be named.
"We're thrilled to have two such outstanding candidates earn this recognition," Kopelke says.
Harris says she is excited to be part of a community of writers and to curate her work, which is about binding together stories of diasporic black communities, here and abroad, into a tangible whole.
"I'm young and have a lot more lives to live. In each I want to write poems, dreams," Harris says.
Fellow M.F.A. student Kim Uslin has been in journalism since completing her undergraduate work, but looks forward to a return to more personal and creative writing. She is interested in a wide range of social justice initiatives, particularly mental health advocacy and awareness and support for refugee and immigrant populations.
"I hope to write and publish creative nonfiction on the national stage, as well as continue to use my writing to bring attention to social issues," Uslin says.
Learn more about the Klein Fellowship in Creative Writing and Social Justce.
Learn more about the Klein Family School of Communications Design, part of UB's Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences.