Faculty featured in reading series

Two members of the Northwestern College English faculty will be featured in the next edition of the Deep Song Reading series on Monday, Feb. 15, at 7 p.m. in Te Paske Gallery of the Korver Visual Arts Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Richard Sowienski and Weston Cutter, both of whom joined the English faculty last fall, will share selected personal writings from their repertoires. Sowienski will read from his book-in-progress, personal essays that touch on fidelity, faith, grace and caregiving. He will read from an essay recalling his days as a Bible-book salesman in the South. Cutter will also read from a selection of his current works.

Sowienski earned a Master of Fine Arts in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa, where he also did his undergraduate study. He served as managing editor for The Missouri Review and taught at the University of Missouri. Previously, he fulfilled a variety of roles during a 20-year career at Meredith Corporation, including parenting and education editor of Better Homes and Gardens, founding editor of Raising Teens, and senior editor of Country America. Sowienski also was the advertising sales manager for Successful Farming, for which he garnered over 80 communication awards. He teaches writing, literature and introductory rhetoric courses.

Cutter earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at Virginia Tech and a bachelor’s degree in English at Gustavus Adolphus College. Cutter was included in the Best New Poets of 2008, and two of his poems were nominated for the Pushcart Prize in both 2007 and 2008. His poetry and fiction have been published in several literary journals, including the Mid-American Review, Willow Springs, Boston Review and Ninth Letter. Cutter teaches creative writing courses and serves as adviser for Northwestern’s student newspaper, the Beacon, and literary magazine, Spectrum.