Distinguished Faculty AwardJim Crenner
Jim Crenner
Professor Emeritus of English
1967-2008
A Professor of English at the Colleges from 1967 to 2008, Jim Crenner helped to raise the Creative Writing major and literary studies at HWS to new levels of excellence. He was a co-founder in 1970 of the Seneca Review, the Colleges’ renowned and internationally distributed literary magazine specializing in poetry and translations. In 2001, Crenner was appointed to the John Milton Potter Chair, an endowed professorship, a distinction reserved for the most consequential members of the faculty. The author of four books of poetry and with more than 50 publications in literary magazines, Crenner holds an M.A. in modern literature and a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Iowa, as well as an M.F.A. from the prestigious Iowa Creative Writers’ Workshop. Crenner is most often described as “inspired” by his former students, who can’t help but carry his influence wherever they go. As one student recalled, “By caring so much about the subjects he taught and about the students he taught, Jim Crenner gave students not only a passion for the courses’ content but also the desire to embody the same level of passion in whatever form we felt drawn to in the future.”