FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Thanks to a $250,000 gift by alumna Carolyn Walton of Fayetteville, all future incoming poetry, fiction and translation students entering the M.F.A. programs in creative writing at the University of Arkansas will soon receive a start up fund, which will enable them to begin their first semester on a secure financial footing.

The Carolyn Walton Endowed Fund in Creative Writing will help attract the most outstanding applicants in the country to the M.F.A. program and will help the University continue to hold its own on a nationally competitive level.

UA Chancellor John White said, "We are extremely grateful for Carolyn Walton’s continued support of the creative writing program at the University of Arkansas. This endowment will provide a continuous source of funding to help attract and retain gifted young writers to the University and will add to the strength of our nationally ranked program. By making provisions for support in an area she holds dear, Carolyn is helping the University of Arkansas emerge as a nationally competitive student-centered research university serving Arkansas and the world - a vision we cannot realize without superlative programs in the arts and humanities."

The UA creative writing program, ranked 16th nationally by U.S. News Best Graduate Schools in 2001, offers intensive workshops, courses in poetics and fiction theory and literature both traditional and contemporary. Supplementing regular coursework, individual manuscript conferences with all members of the staff are part of the curriculum. Students also have the benefit of biannual visits by guest writers who give readings, teach workshops and offer individual attention to student work.

G. David Gearhart, vice chancellor for University Advancement, said, "Carolyn Walton is counted among the University’s most loyal friends and we are so pleased for her support of the creative writing program. It is the vision and generosity of benefactors like Carolyn that is making the difference in our Campaign for the Twenty-First Century efforts and we are grateful for her gift."

Molly Giles, director of the creative writing program said, "Carolyn Walton is not only beautiful, charming, warm, intelligent and great fun to be with - she is also a reader. She knows and likes good books and is always up to date on the best new novels, non-fiction, and poetry. Her recent generous gift to our incoming M.F.A. students will insure that she is never out of the best new books - soon to be written, of course, by them. We are deeply grateful."

Carolyn Walton, who took graduate courses in the M.F.A. program while completing her M.A. in English literature at the University of Arkansas, said, "The faculty in the creative writing program are among the best in the country. I personally benefited from the classes with Jim Whitehead, Bill Harrison and Skip Hays. My time in these classes was one of the best intellectual experiences of my life."

Donald R. Bobbitt, interim dean of Fulbright College, said, "We are grateful that Carolyn Walton wanted to make a difference in our students’ education and establish this new endowment for the benefit of the creative writing program. The University of Arkansas has had one of the strongest creative writing programs in the nation and this gift will help further our reputation."

Walton is a member of the Fulbright College Campaign for the Twenty-First Century Committee.