University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop faculty member Ethan Canin was named the newest Collegiate Fellow in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. 

The Collegiate Fellow program is the college’s most prestigious honor and recognizes senior faculty who demonstrate distinction in teaching, scholarship, and exceptional leadership.  

The program honors faculty who have achieved the rank of full professor and have an established record of sustained development and productivity in the areas of teaching, research, scholarship, and creative work. 

Canin is a nationally and internationally known fiction writer. He is the author of five novels, including A Doubter's Almanac, America, America, and Carry Me Across the Water, and two collections of stories, The Palace Thief and Emperor of the Air. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Paris Review, and Granta, which named him one of the "Best Young American Novelists.” 

The New Yorker named him one of 20 “Writers for the New Millennium.”  Canin’s novels have consistently appeared on “Best Books of the Year” lists. He is also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Michener-Copernicus Fellowship, a prize given to the most promising Writers’ Workshop graduates, and a Koret Foundation Israel Fellowship, granted to accomplished Jewish writers.  

His writing has been praised for its grace, lucidity, characterization, and attention to narrative form, Writers’ Workshop director Lan Samantha Chang wrote in a nomination letter. Chang added how Canin is a much-respected faculty member at the Writers’ Workshop. 

“Over more than 25 years of teaching, he has developed a unique and meticulous pedagogy that has influenced generations of writers and creative writing instructors at colleges and universities across the United States,” Chang wrote. 

Canin is also a thesis advisor and mentor of students. 

“As an instructor, he is in high demand among the students,” Chang wrote. “His students love him. His reputation as a novelist draws many applicants to the program.” 

The Collegiate Fellow designation is a five-year term beginning July 1.  

Canin will receive a one-time teaching/research allowance of $2,000 to be used during his first two years. A gift to the college from the late R. F. and Maryon E. Ladwig supports the funding for each fellow. 

^{Fatima Salinas | College of Liberal Arts & Sciences News}