Even though Dr. Susan McLean, Southwest Minnesota State University Professor of English, is on sabbatical for the school year, that doesn’t mean she’s slowed down. Jet setting between the Mediterranean and warmer climates in the United States, McLean has also added an award to her resume. Just before the beginning of semester break, she received word that she’d won the 2014 Donald Justice Poetry Prize.

Along with the prestige of the award, McLean will also have her second book of poetry published, The Whetstone Misses the Knife. The poems are more lighthearted compared to her first book.

“I had removed most of the funny poems.  When I started putting together a second book manuscript, I didn’t have quite enough serious poems to reach the proper book length, so I added many of the humorous poems that I had published in journals,” McLean said.

In early June, McLean will have the opportunity to give a reading from her book of poems in West Chester University in Penn. There she will take workshops from expert poets in rhyme and meter, hear about issues in the realm of poetry, network with other poets, and learn of new poets to read.

“It is great to be able to complete these projects, and I think I will return to teaching energized by the time to write, study, and travel while learning more about the subjects I teach,” McLean said of winning the contest and returning in the fall of 2014.