Prairie A&M University announced on March 19 that they would be launching a new writing program inspired by the prolific writer Toni Morrison.
According to the university, the program is centered around amplifying the work of writers that attended historically Black colleges and universities through the Toni Morrison Writing program.
Morrison places heavy importance on the idea that Howard, the university in which she studied and an HBCU, was crucial to her path in becoming a writer.
Prairie View A&M University in Texas to launch Toni Morrison Writing Program – The Morning Journal https://t.co/NYPCvj9Si4 #HBCU #HBCUnews
— HBCU Lifestyle (@HBCU_Lifestyle) March 21, 2021
NewsOne reported that the program would expose students to multiple facets of African American literature through many seminars and workshops available to the students enrolled.
The writing program will also appoint a Writer-In-Residence. The writer is set to have a one-year visiting appointment at Prairie View A&M University to facilitate readings of Morrison’s work and other writers that will influence the workshops.
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MacKenzie Scott, a former HBCU student who studied with Morrison at Princeton University, will take part in the program’s funding.
Scott donated $50 million to Prairie View A&M University last year, and out of that, $3 million will go towards the Toni Morrison Writing Program.
Emma Joahanne Thomas-Smith, Ed.D., Prairie View A&M’s provost emerita, will be leading the program. Thomas-Smith said, “Faculty and staff of both the University and area high schools will share in the activities of the program and benefit from the Writer-in-Residence and other artists representing the full range of literary genres,” as shared by the Associated Press.
The program will expand beyond the university and sponsor a high school writing program, that of which the winner will receive a scholarship at the end.
