McMullan Wins Award from Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana

Margaret McMullan, Professor of English at UE, was recently named a recipient of the 2005 Arts Awards. These honors have been presented annually since 1981 by the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana.

McMullan, in addition to chairing the Department of English for the last several years, has recently published two new award-winning novels. She has received the 2005 Fiction Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters and the Best Books of Indiana 2005 Award for her young adult book How I Found the Strong. This book was also named a 2005 Notable Social Studies Book, voted a "great book" by the State of Maryland Book Consortium, named a Booklist's Top 10 First Novel for Youth, and chosen Evansville's First Youth Selection for the 2004 One-Book, One Community reading program. It was also nominated for a 2005 Capital Choice Award in Washington, D.C., a 2005 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award, and ALA Best Book for Young Adults. McMullan also recently published In My Mother's House, a novel about a daughter's quest to understand her mother's staunch commitment to silence about their family's experiences in Vienna during WWII. Her first novel, When Warhol Was Still Alive, was published in 1994. She has received two Individual Artist Fellowships from the Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 2003, McMullan was honored with the Sadelle and Sydney Berger Award for service and scholarly activity by the University of Evansville. Additionally, she has been a frequent faculty member and guest artist at the RopeWalk Writers Retreat in New Harmony. "Margaret's contagious smile and ready wit have made her a treasure in our community and a vital contributor to Evansville's literary family," Jack Schriber, chair of the Arts Council Awards Banquet, said.