English Dept. College of Arts and Sciences, Washburn University

Margaret Stewart
margy.stewart@washburn.edu

Professor Margaret Stewart (“Margy”) was born in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, and attended public grade school and high school in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. She earned an A.B. from Radcliffe College and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. She taught English at Hanover College from 1981-1990 and has taught English at Washburn University since 1990. At Washburn, she is coordinator of the Freshman Composition program and co-director of the Washburn Writers Program. She also teaches courses in American literature, nature writing, playwriting, women’s literature, and war literature. She has won Washburn’s teaching award and its service award, in addition to a special award for excellence in teaching, learning, and technology. She has published essays on the birds and amphibians of Kansas, Viet Nam War literature, early American literature, the teaching of writing, and the use of computers in the classroom. She writes a regular column on the tall grass prairie for the Junction City, Kansas, Daily Union. She is married to Ronald C. Young and lives with him on a native prairie preserve in the Flint Hills of Kansas, described at http://www.prairie-heritage.org. Washburn students often visit the preserve for nature writing classes or other workshops. Together with Ustaine Talley, she founded Prairie Heritage, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to the tall grass prairie and its natural and social history.