UB Libraries opens new poetry award to college students across WNY

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The University at Buffalo Libraries and riverrun have established the riverrun Summer Research Program in the Poetry Collection, a new award that aims to advance the study of poetry in Western New York.

The award will provide one Western New York college student with a $1,900 stipend to pursue research within the Poetry Collection of the UB Libraries, home to one of the world’s largest collections of 20th- and 21st-century poetry in English.

Undergraduate and graduate students from all colleges and universities within eight Western New York counties are eligible to apply. The eight counties include: Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans and Wyoming.

Interested students should submit a cover letter and research proposal to Aaron Goldsman, PhD, assistant curator of the Poetry Collection of the UB Libraries, agoldsma@buffalo.edu.

The deadline for submission is May 4.

Applicants may learn more about the 2018 riverrun Summer Research Program in the Poetry Collection at library.buffalo.edu/pl/riverrun. For information about the Poetry Collection, visit library.buffalo.edu/pl.

“We hope this award benefits students in the area by giving them an opportunity to incorporate primary resources – first and other bibliographically significant editions, small press publications, little magazines, manuscripts, etc. — into their academic research,” said James Maynard, PhD, curator of the Poetry Collection of the UB Libraries.

“Speaking from my own background, this can be a life-changing experience, and one that, thanks to riverrun, we can now share with more graduate and undergraduate students in Western New York.”

The Poetry Collection holds one of the world’s largest collections of poetry first editions, chapbooks, periodicals and broadsides, as well as more than 150 archive and manuscript collections from a wide range of poets, presses, magazines and organizations.

riverrun is an educational organization that provides cultural, arts and social programming, especially those addressing Irish-American issues, to the Western New York community.