Professors’ work validated by Guggenheim
■The prestigious award
allows recipients to pursue
research projects and other
short-term career goals
By Brooke Ross
Oregon Daily Emerald
Two creative writing professors
and a biology professor at the Uni
versity have been awarded grants
from the John Simon Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation Fellowship
competition in honor of outstand
ing work in their respective fields.
The Guggenheim awards are
given to scholars and artists based
on past and present work. The 183
recipients will receive awards to
taling more than $6 million,
which will provide winners with
the opportunity to take time off
from their jobs and work on their
research and ongoing projects. At
this time it is not certain how
much money each recipient will
receive, but individual awards
usually range from $20,000 to
$30,000.
Ehud Havazelet and Dorianne
Laux, associate professors in the
creative writing program, and
Monte Westerfield, biology profes
sor, were among the winners, cho
sen from nearly 3,000 applicants.
Havazelet’s novels and Laux’s po
ems earned acclaim, and Wester
field was chosen for the award
based on his research involving the
human nervous system.
Havazelet is currently working on
a novel about a Holocaust survivor
growing up in the 60s and 70s with
his two sons, and said he plans to
use his grant to finish the book.
“What’s nice is the program rec
ognizes people in all academic
fields,” he said. “But I’m proud of
our department and the recognition
it’s getting.”
Havazelet said learning to write
was a personal struggle he had to
overcome.
“I didn’t always do it, and I cer
tainly didn’t always do it well,” he
said, “but I always wanted to.”
Havazelet said the turning point
in his career came when he began
studying music in college. He said
after a couple years he realized writ
ing was more important to him.
“I finally found the patience to
master the craft,” he said.
Havazelet said patience is some
thing he stresses to his writing stu
dents.
“Most young writers just want to
be good immediately, but it doesn’t
always happen that way,” he said.
Westerfield plans to use his grant
to continue the research he’s been
doing for the last two decades.
He spent the last 20 years at the
University studying nervous system
development in humans, and is cur
rently working with zebrafish to
study certain human syndromes be
cause the two species have similar
genes.
“Discovering new things and
making new discoveries is what’s
exciting,” he said.
He said he plans to take off time
from the University to continue his
zebrafish work in Germany along
with some former students.
Laux, who has written several po
ems and poetry books, was out of
town and unavailable for comment.
Garrett Hongo, professor in the
creative writing program, was a
Guggenheim recipient in 1991 and
also hired both Havazelet and Laux.
“They’re wonderful writers,” he
said. “They’re both well deserving,
and I’m very proud of them.”
Hongo, who is from Hawaii, said
his award money helped him finish
a book he had been working on
about his family history. He said he
was able to go to Hawaii and explore
the volcanoes that he used in his
story.
“It was a great career validation
and confidence booster for me,” he
said.
Past University recipients of the John Simon
Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship:
Year:
1991
1992
1997
1998
1999
Name:
Garrett Hongo
Robert Grudin
Charles Kimmel
David Crumb
Carlos Aguirre
Department:
English
English
Neuroscience
Music
History
Amount:
$29,000
$30,000
$30,000
$34,000
$30,000
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Columbia River tribes get first
spring Chinook fishery in years
By Linda Ashton
The Associated Press
YAKIMA, Wash. — With the
largest run of spring Chinook ex
pected since 1938, four Columbia
River tribes are engaged in their
first commercial fishery in nearly a
quarter-century.
The spring forecast is for 346,600
Chinook, the most since record
keeping began. Last year’s run came
in at 178,600.
“The tribal feeling is that this is a
celebration. This is a real blessing.
We’ve waited a long time,” Charles
Hudson, spokesman for the Colum
bia River Inter-tribal Fish Commis
sion, said Wednesday.
Scientists have suggested the
high numbers could be attributed
to two factors: favorable flows in
the Columbia River in 1998 and
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1999, when these salmon were mi
grating to the Pacific Ocean, and
subsequent good ocean conditions
with cold water and plenty of food.
At last weekend’s Celilo Wyam
salmon feast near The Dalles, Ore.,
tribal elders attributed the big num
bers to prayer and perseverance.
The Yakama, the Umatilla, the
Warm Springs and Nez Perce tribes
began the season Tuesday and wrap
it up Thursday. Another brief ses
sion may be scheduled for next
week. Their last spring Chinook
commercial fishery was in 1977.
Fishing is under way from the
Bonneville Dam east to McNary
Dam, involving about 500 fisher
men. Most of the harvest will go to
wholesale buyers this year.
The tribes, the states of Washing
ton and Oregon and the National
Marine Fisheries Service negotiate
the harvest levels for fishing on the
river, based on the forecasted fish
return.
The four treaty tribes are entitled
to half of the run legally, “but we
are not catching a treaty share,”
Hudson said. “Because of Endan
gered Species Act constraints, we
are going to catch about 46,000
above Bonneville Dam.”
After there’s a negotiated biologi
cal decision on how many fish can
be harvested from the runs, each
tribe decides how to allocate their
catch for ceremonial, subsistence
and for-profit fishing, Hudson said.
Since record-keeping began in
1938, the previous peak run of
spring Chinook was in 1955 when
270,000 of them returned to the Co
lumbia River and its tributaries to
spawn. The next-largest run was in
1972, with 260,000 spring Chinook.
The runs dropped off dramatically
after the Snake River dams were
completed, Hudson said.
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