The Leaders of the WWP

Dr. Margy Stewart, English Department
Ann Callies, EOP Director

Fellows | Admin Staff | History

Ann Callies

Ann CalliesHi! I am the director of the Educational Opportunity Program here at Washburn. I hold a BS in Education from the University of Kansas, and a Master of Liberal Studies degree from Washburn. Prior to my work at WU, I taught high school English for several years. I'm very excited to be working with the Washburn Writers!

Five Books that Changed My Life:

  1. My Antonia by Willa Cather
  2. Small Wonder: Essays by Barbara Kingsolver
  3. The Middle of Everywhere: The World's Refugees Come to Our Town by Mary Pipher
  4. The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver
  5. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Writing Wisdom:
"I feel that a good piece of writing reaches across time and distance and touches your heart or mind somehow. You learn something about someone's story and perhaps you may even learn a little something new about yourself. One of the many benefits of writing is that it is a gift for both the reader and the writer."

Margy Stewart

Margy StewartGreetings, everyone! I am a professor of English, co-founder of the Washburn Writers Program, and a big fan of the tall grass prairie. I grew up in Wisconsin, in the Mississippi River Valley, but as soon as I saw the prairie the river took second place. The books that changed me most were those I encountered in childhood. Charlotte's Web and the Doctor Doolittle books confirmed my identification with the natural world and Nancy Drew showed me girls can be in the driver's seat oh, that roadster!). Great Men of Medicine taught me that institutions will fight challenges to their authority, while Doris Lessing showed me that women had had to fight to assume some authority of their own.

Five Books that Changed My Life:

  1. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
  2. The Doctor Doolittle series - Hugh Lofting.
  3. The Nancy Drew series - "Carolyn Keene"
  4. Great Men of Medicine - Ruth Fox
  5. The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing

Words of Writing Wisdom:

"Writing is a form of speaking but it is also a form of listening. Sometimes the world uses our own words to tell us what we need to hear."