The Kratz Center for Creative Writing is a dedicated fund committed to supporting creative writing students at Goucher College and the writing community of Baltimore. The Kratz Center brings nationally and internationally recognized authors to campus for its Visiting Authors Series and its Spring Writer in Residence Series. These authors work closely with students to provide them with a stimulating environment in which the highest quality of writing is encouraged.
Created by a generous $1 million gift from Eleanor Kratz Denoon, a 1936 Goucher alumna, the Kratz Center builds upon Goucher’s long-standing reputation of producing talented and distinguished writers such as Jennifer Crowell, author of Necessary Madness; Christine Stewart, who received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship for her collection of poems; John McManus, author of a collection of short stories, Stop Breaking Down; and many more.
The following is an interview originally published in The Goucher Quarterly Magazine (January 2000) between the Kratz Center’s Founding Director, novelist Madison Smartt Bell, which discusses the college’s Kratz Center for Creative Writing.
The following is the introduction of David Guterson that Madison Smartt Bell offered on September 13, 1999, in the Kraushaar Auditorium on the occasion of the Kratz Center’s first visiting author event.
The Kratz Center functions cooperatively with Goucher’s undergraduate Department for Professional and Creative Writing, enhancing and expanding the curriculum with distinguished guest writers and new course offerings.
In addition to visiting authors, the Kratz Center hosts an array of master classes and symposia each semester.
The Center offers many awards for writing students, including the annual Summer Writing Fellowships.