Encyclopedia Dubuque
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EKLUND, George
EKLUND, George. (Long Island, NY, 1953- ). Eklund attended the UNIVERSITY OF DUBUQUE from 1970 to 1974 graduating with a degree in English Education. He received his M. F. A. degree in English from the University of Iowa. In 1974 started his educational career in as a high school English teacher in Massapequa, New York.
In 1982 after study with major American poets at Columbia University and the University of Iowa, Eklund published his first major book of poetry, Gone West of Sunrise Highway. This was preceded by First Sunrise and Infant Dawn. He was a contributor to They Came From Dubuque.
Eklund began teaching at Morehead State University in 1989. He was awarded the Al Smith Fellowship in Poetry along with professional assistance grants by the Kentucky Arts Council in 1990 and 2004 and the Iowa Arts Council Poetry Award and Mississippi Valley Poetry Award. He was a featured poet in Ireland Writers in Ireland in 2004 and 2005. In 2007 he received the MSU Research and Creative Productions Committee Distinguished Creative Production Award.
His poems have been published in numerous journals including The American Poetry Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Laurel Review, Crazy Horse, Willow Springs, Plainsongs, Widener Review, Poet and Critic, and The Midwest Quarterly. In 2005, his poetry manuscript, “Each Breath I Cannot Hold,” was runner-up in the Poets & Writers National Poetry Contest.
Eklund served as an editorial board member of the Jesse Stuart Foundation First Book Award Contest. He was an education consultant for Region 7 Service Center and appointed academic committee chair at Antioch University’s Individualized Master of Arts Program.
Eklund served as a “visiting teacher” at local elementary, middle and high schools for writing workshops as well as a presenter and speaker at numerous events. He was an adviser for Inscape, Morehead State University’s literary and visual arts publication, along with the Fine Arts Network and Non-Traditional Eagle Society.
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Source:
"George E. Eklund," Online: http://www2.moreheadstate.edu/files/units/research/rcpc/2007_CP_Eklund.pdf
Tigges, John. They Came From Dubuque, Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1983, p. 128.