Fay to study in France on Fulbright

(Oct. 10, 2004)   —   Julie Fay, an English professor at East Carolina University, was awarded a Fulbright grant to teach and research in Montpellier, France, through January 2005.

Fay, who teaches literature, creative writing and poetry at the university, will conduct research and lecture on “The Compostela Pilgrimage Route and the Prose of Max Rouquette” at the University of Paul Valery.

Fay’s three poetry collections are The Woman Behind You, Portraits of Women and In Every Mirror. She has published her poems, fiction, and nonfiction essays internationally and has received grants, fellowships and awards from the North Carolina Arts Council; l’Institut Regional du Livre du Conseil Regional Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur; the Centre International des Traducteurs Litteraires Arles, France; the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ireland; and the Michael Karolyi Foundation, France. She was the poetry editor of the North Carolina Literary Review.

As part of her research, Fay will study Rouquette, a prose writer and playwright who is among southwestern France’s most highly respected authors. Rooted in oral tradition, his work is often cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in literature. Though translated into French, German, Italian, Polish, Galician, Catalan, Arab, and Dutch, there is little critical or scholarly attention paid to Rouquette in English.

Fay, who has taught since 1980, is one of about 800 faculty and professionals from the United States who will travel abroad during the 2004-05 academic year as part of the Fulbright Scholar Program. Established in 1946, the program’s purpose is to build mutual understanding between the U.S. and the global community.

Sponsored by the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright Program awards scholarships based on academic or professional achievement.