SU's Young Wins MSCA Individual Artist Award

SALISBURY, MD---P. Ivan Young, lecturer in Salisbury University’s English Department, recently received a $3,000 Individual Artist Award in Poetry from the Maryland State Arts Council.

Young’s was one of only 24 Individual Artist awards given in poetry for 2011 and among only 10 to earn one of the top prizes.

Interested in poetry at a young age, he began writing creative works when he was 7. “It seemed to always come to me in images, and those are the building blocks of poetry,” he said.

As a graduate student in the M.F.A. program at the University of South Carolina, he studied with poet and novelist James Dickey, who encouraged him to continue writing poetry.

Young is the author of A Shape in the Waves, published by Stepping Stones Press, and has most recently published in The London Magazine, Barnwood and Blue Mesa Review. He plans to use his award to enter two recent poetry manuscripts in contests for publication and to attend conferences including the Association of Writers and Writing Programs’ annual event.

For more information call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu.