Acclaimed Novelist to Join Pomona Faculty

Acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace has been named the first Roy Edward Disney Professor in Creative Writing, filling a new professorship endowed by a gift from Roy Disney '51.

Wallace will join the faculty at Pomona College in the fall of 2002 upon completion of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, commonly known as a "genius grant."

Among his recent works are the critically acclaimed novel Infinite Jest (1996), Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (1999), and A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments (1997). He is also a regular contributor to Harper's and The New Yorker magazines.

"The search committee targeted writers who had a national reputation, writers whose work we've taught," said Rena Fraden, professor of English and chair of the English Department. "We already knew that Wallace was a spectacular writer. Following a special workshop he conducted for our students, we found out that he was also an extraordinary teacher." Students in the workshop called him "charismatic" and "phenomenal."