Literary Ambitions

The International Institute of Modern Letters has set its goal of becoming the world's top philanthropy organization for literary arts. Why? It's all in the name of progress.

by Cate Weeks

When Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, then president of an international writers group, announced in May 2000 that Las Vegas had been named the first U.S. City of Asylum for persecuted writers, the world seemed to ask, “Why Vegas?” Headlines pointed to the seeming incongruity of Las Vegas as a refuge for dissident writers – “Unlikely Haven for a Writer” (Los Angeles Times), “A Literary Gamble: Sin City Goes for the Cultural Jackpot as a Poet’s Asylum” (USA Today).

The answer, casino executive and UNLV benefactor Glenn Schaeffer says, is straightforward: no other city and no other university had seized the opportunity. “It doesn’t cost much money to claim a leadership position in literary arts; it only requires dedication, motivated community activists, a town with ambition, and the right connections,” he says.

The right connections were made years ago, when UNLV creative writing professor Richard Wiley met Soyinka in 1990, when the Nigerian playwright was visiting campus. The two reconnected in October 1999, when Soyinka was on campus to present a Barrick Lecture.

“Over dinner and a bottle of wine, Wole was bemoaning the fact that he was having trouble establishing an American City of Asylum,” Wiley recounts. “We started joking about how it would play against type to bring the program to Las Vegas. Pretty soon the joke stopped being a joke.”

The other pivotal connection in the story is Wiley’s friendship with Schaeffer. The two had met while attending the respected Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Schaeffer had previously expressed his desire to establish a literary arts organization. Then in stepped UNLV President Carol C. Harter – “an energetic and thoughtful collaborator,” Schaeffer says – and another Workshop graduate, Eric Olsen. With substantial funding from Schaeffer, the group created the International Institute of Modern Letters, headquartered at UNLV with Olsen as its director.

Now the institute is working to become the major patron for the literary arts in the world, Olsen says. “That’s not an unrealistic goal, given the lack of organizational support in this area. There are many groups that support performing arts, but few, unless you count corporate publishing, that support literature. We can make a significant impact partly because few others have taken on the challenge.”

Though previously overlooked by philanthropists, literary arts are not marginal in their value to society, according to the institute’s leaders. The organization’s underlying principle is that a thriving literary environment is an essential component of democracy and progress. Writers, they say, fight epidemics of hate, intolerance, and totalitarianism. “We embrace the idea that literature, alone among the arts, stands for intellectual freedom, humane choice, progress, and telling the truth against political lies,” Schaeffer says.

But to have that effect, Olsen says, writers must reach a general audience. “We don’t want the institute to become a self-referential organization that produces people who only speak to others in the world of literature with a big ‘L,’” he says. “We hope to be known as an organization that nurtures the public intellectual, someone who produces the kind of writing that gets read.”
The institute’s latest affiliate, UNLV art criticism professor Dave Hickey, is an example of a public intellectual, Olsen says. “Dave’s a genius in the art world (see page 14). But one thing that sets him apart is that he is skilled at expressing his ideas – which are sometimes at odds with the art community – to a broad audience outside the art world.”

Center of Excellence
The institute still oversees the City of Asylum-Las Vegas, providing the resident writer with a townhome, living stipend, and health insurance (see page 18). To support emerging writers, it has established programs at the universities of Iowa and California-Irvine and at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.

UNLV, however, seems to be embracing the fledgling organization with the most enthusiasm because it, too, is establishing itself as a premier institution, Olsen says. “The notable thing about this university is that it is young, and the people here are not bound by a hundred years of doing things the same old way. It really makes this an ideal place for the institute. UNLV has well-defined goals and clear ambition to become a major urban university.”

In the 2000-01 academic year, Harter charged a think-tank of faculty and administrators with developing UNLV’s research macrothemes, or areas in which the university can make significant contributions to the economic and cultural development of Nevada. Among the 11 macrothemes identified is “Language, Literacy, Literature, and Communications.”

“The International Institute of Modern Letters is among the vibrant and creative programs that are truly distinguishing UNLV as a leader in language and literature,” says Harter, who holds a Ph.D. in English and American literature. “Through this wonderful example of public-private partnership, we are in a unique position to create a center of academic excellence as we simultaneously support the freedom of individuals around the world to write from their hearts and consciences.”

Olsen adds, “A center of excellence in a specific area tends to raise the general tone of any university. It’s not unreasonable to suppose that a physics professor, for example, might see this trickle down – or up – in terms of an improved quality of writing from students.”

At UNLV, the institute provides matching funds for the Elias Ghanem Chair in Creative Writing, which Soyinka now holds, and contributes funding for a public reading series. It created two fellowships for doctoral students in the English department’s creative writing track. The funding allows the fellows to concentrate on completing publishable works along with their degrees. Last year’s recipients were Constance Pruss and Karenmary Penn.

The institute grants scholarships to students in UNLV’s master of fine arts in creative writing international program, the only one of its kind that requires students to live in a non-English-speaking country for at least a semester. The scholarships support the students’ efforts to translate works written in other languages into English.

In addition, the institute is providing grants to individuals to support the translation of selected works. It hopes to launch joint publishing ventures with mainstream publishing houses to get the translations into print.

The translation initiatives are aimed at combating a covert form of censorship: market negligence, especially in this country. Fewer than 300 of the 13,000 works of fiction and poetry published annually in the United States are translations from another language.

The reasons for that gap are primarily economic – the cost of translating works can easily consume the small profit they may generate – but the result is just as chilling to societal progress as censorship by dictators, Olsen says. “It has an isolating effect on our culture. It limits our ability to understand global changes, our ability to understand the people of other countries, such as Afghanistan and Iraq and Korea.”

Writers in the Schools
While the institute clearly has an international focus, it is not neglecting the local community. In 2001, the institute launched Writers in the Schools (WITS) as a pilot program to promote contemporary literature in area high schools.

The innovative project caught the attention of the National Endowment for the Arts, which awarded a $40,000 grant to the institute to present a full-scale program this semester. That grant was matched with $46,374 in applied research initiative funding from UNLV and more than $62,000 in private patron support through the institute. Park Place Entertainment, which operates Caesars Palace, Bally’s, and the Paris gaming properties, has made a significant contribution to the project.
WITS is bringing Clark County teachers, high school juniors, and award-winning writers to UNLV’s Lied Library for intensive workshops. As they read the works of Tom Perrotta, Sandra Cisneros, Mary Karr, and E. Ethelbert Miller, the participants will have the unique experience of learning directly from the award-winning writers.

The authors also are presenting public readings and conducting workshops for UNLV graduate students.

The teachers receive $1,000 grants and are required to take a three-credit graduate course on contemporary literature taught by Douglas Unger, director of UNLV’s M.F.A. in creative writing international program and the institute’s director of grants.

The teachers each choose one “literary-minded” student to participate. “We’re not necessarily looking for honors students,” Unger says. “We want to select the students who are very smart, but perhaps need an added push to enroll in college.”

The students receive up to $800 to take preparatory classes for college admissions exams, as well as $1,000 scholarships to be awarded once they are admitted to a college or arts institute. “By selecting students who were on the verge of disengaging from school, we feel our small program can make a big difference in their lives,” Olsen says.

David Winkler, a novelist and Clark County School District teacher, is leading the 10 weekly student sessions, which last two-and-a-half hours each.

Beyond the classroom, the high school students receive long-term mentoring from graduate students in the creative writing program. The graduate students will guide the teens through the college application process and work with them on writing skills through the fall semester.
The institute also is partnering with the College of Business’ Center for Business and Economic Research. Jennifer Stikich, an economist in the center and graduate student, is conducting a cost-benefits analysis of the WITS program.

The study will offer ground-breaking research, Unger says. “Nobody has crunched the numbers before to determine the cost-benefits of a literary arts learning program,” he says. “We want to find out how much such a program stimulates book buying, literary and cultural activities, and other economic impacts on the community.”

James Frey, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, believes the NEA grant is a clear sign of UNLV’s rising status in the literary community. “The institute not only brings notoriety to UNLV and to the English department’s M.F.A. program,” he says, “it also enhances the literary opportunities for students, faculty, and community members by virtue of the programs it sponsors. Both the campus and the community are enriched by its efforts to bring internationally acclaimed writers to campus and the community to share their craft.”

Wiley adds, “The City of Asylum got tons of media coverage – that will be repeated time and time again as we get this project moving. I predict in the next half decade the institute will show itself as the flagship center of UNLV.”

For more information on the International Institute of Modern Letters, call Eric Olsen at (702) 895-3033 or visit www.modernletters.org.