The Ohio Arts Council board has honored seven faculty from the English department in their 2016 Individual Excellence Awards. Those honored include Lee Martin, professor, English; Memory Risinger, senior lecturer, English; Kathy Fagan Grandinetti, professor, English; Marcus Jackson, visiting assistant professor, English; Doug Sutton-Ramspeck, associate professor, English, Ohio State Lima; Maggie Smith, visiting assistant professor, English; and David Winter, senior lecturer, English. Each awardee received $5,000 as part of the award.

Individual Excellence Awards are peer recognition of creative artists for the exceptional merit of a body of their work that advances or exemplifies the discipline and the larger artistic community. These awards support artists' growth and development and recognize their work in Ohio and beyond. During this funding cycle, applications in choreography, criticism, fiction/nonfiction, music composition, playwriting, and poetry categories were accepted.

We would like to congratulate all those commended as they continue to grow as artists and educators.