Franklin News

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Writer:  Kim Cretors, 706/542-1168, kcretors@franklin.uga.edu
Contact: Judith Ortiz Cofer, 706/542-2223, jocofer@uga.edu

UGA’s Judith Ortiz Cofer, acclaimed poet and novelist, is named Regents’ Professor

Athens, Ga. – Judith Ortiz Cofer has another honor to add to a long and growing list:  Regents’ Professor.  Cofer – a critically acclaimed and widely published poet, novelist, and essayist and professor in the department of English at the University of Georgia – is only the second woman to be named a Regents’ Professor at UGA.

“I am grateful to the Board of Regents for this very special honor,” says Cofer. “I also wish to thank the University of Georgia’s special professorships committee and everyone involved in recommending and approving my appointment as a Regents’ Professor. I am encouraged in my work as a teacher and a writer by this recognition.”

Regents’ Professorships are granted by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents to outstanding faculty members for an initial period of three years and are renewable for a second three-year period based on recommendations. Awardees receive a $10,000 permanent salary increase, in addition to the merit raise, in the year of initial appointment. They also receive a yearly fund of $5,000 in support of their scholarship.

“Judith Ortiz Cofer’s appointment as Regents’ Professor is yet another sign of the quality and importance of her work as both a teacher and a writer,” says Garnett S. Stokes, dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.  “I am delighted to congratulate her on this addition to her list of accomplishments and am pleased by the action of the Regents.”

Cofer has been a faculty member at UGA since 1984 and is currently a professor of English and creative writing. She also holds the title of Franklin Professor, a professorship established to honor “versatile and long-term contributors to the success of the Franklin College,” according to former college dean Wyatt Anderson.

Cofer has been an inspiration to countless students throughout her career at UGA, according to the students themselves.  One student says Cofer “always asks the one insightful question that makes you re-think and improve what you’ve written.  She’s the reason I’m doing my Ph.D. here.” Another says Cofer’s teaching style is “rich with methods, prompts and incisive criticism, but her most valuable asset as a teacher is her own passion and discipline as a writer.”

In 2003, Cofer received an invitation from First Lady Laura Bush to attend a dinner for writers and Washington dignitaries at the Library of Congress followed by a gala at the White House.  “The evening in the West Wing was special in totally unexpected ways,” said Cofer in an earlier interview. “I feel that beyond the personal honor, my invitation means that ‘American author’ means all kinds of writers:  Latina, Irish, Southern. . . .”

Among Cofer’s many books are the novels The Meaning of Consuelo (2003), Call Me Maria (2004) and The Line of the Sun (1991).  The Meaning of Consuelo was selected as one of two winners of the 2003 Americas Award and was included on the New York Public Library’s “Books for the Teen Age 2004 List.” A young adult novel, Call Me Maria received an honorable mention for the 2005 Americas Award. 

Cofer’s works of poetry and prose are many as well.  They include A Love Story Beginning in Spanish: Poems (2005); The Latin Deli: Prose and Poetry (1995); the memoir Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood (1990); and two books of poetry, Terms of Survival (1995) and Reaching for the Mainland (1987).  The Latin Deli received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was nominated for a National Book Award.  The book most recently was a 2005 selection on the “Georgia Top 25 Reading List” issued by the Georgia Center for the Book.

Literally hundreds of her poems, essays, short stories and novel excerpts have been selected for reprinting in anthologies, textbooks and collections and in many of the country’s most distinguished literary journals. Those publications include the textbooks and anthologies Best American Essays 1991, The Norton Book of Women's Lives, The Norton Introduction to Literature, The Norton Introduction to Poetry, The Heath Anthology of American Literature, The Pushcart Prize and the O. Henry Prize Stories and the periodicals The Georgia Review, Kenyon Review, Southern Review and Glamour among others.

Cofer has taught many courses at UGA over the years, including an Honors course in composition and literature that introduces students to the diversity of writers in American literature today, and courses on multicultural American literature and the literature of women.

Cofer’s home is a farm in Louisville, Ga., where she lives with her husband, John, an algebra teacher at Jefferson County High School.  Her daughter, Tanya, received a Ph.D. in mathematics from UGA and is now an assistant professor of mathematics at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago.

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