Creators’ mates’ plot revival of creative writing program

FAYETTEVILLE - Merlee Harrison and the former Gen Whitehead have a vested interest in the University of Arkansas’ pioneering creative writing program.

Their late husbands, Bill Harrison and Jim Whitehead, lifted the program to national prominence during their tenure, and the wives entertained students in their homes sometimes three or more times a week, fostering a creative environment in which the students thrived.

Several of those former students and their professors gathered at the Harrison home on Mount Sequoyah in Fayetteville the night of Jan.

31 as the wives announced creation of the William N. Harrison and James T.

Whitehead Creative Writing Endowment. Whitehead founded the creative writing program in 1965, Harrison came aboard the next year and renowned poet Miller Williams joined them a year after that.

At the time, it was one of three in the country.

Now there are more than 300, some garnering landmark donations, said the program’s current director, Davis McCombs. Because of the rise in competing creative writing programs, the UA has seen a decline in applications over the last several years, he said.

A committee led by Merlee Harrison and Gen Whitehead Broyles seeks to raise $10 million to establish stipends for students and send the program into the top 10 nationally.

Before the party, two of the program’s star alumni, the husband-and wife writing team of Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly, held a reading and signing of their latest book, The Tilted World, at Nightbird Books on Dickson Street. Fennelly heads the creative writing program at the University of Mississippi at Oxford.