Directed by resident faculty member Jack Collom, Project Outreach places students in local schools and other institutions to lead creative writing workshops. Writing and Poetics students, both graduate and undergraduate, receive course credit while developing their teaching skills for the benefit of the larger community. Project Outreach is offered every fall and spring semester as an elective course and offers students the unique opportunity to go out into the world as literary activists, sharpening and extending their own teaching skills.
Jack Collom has had his work published in countless magazines and anthologies in the U.S. and abroad. His collections of poetry include Little Grand Island, Arguing with Something Plato Said, 8-Ball, Entering the City, Selected Poems 1955-200, Red Car Goes By published 2001. His latest is Extremes and Balances (2004). His essays on teaching and collections of children's poetry appear in Moving Windows and Poetry Everywhere. Jack has produced two CD's of original work performed in collaboration with musician/composer, Ken Bernstein. He was awarded NEA fellowships in 1980 and 1990.