PLAINFIELD, Vt. — Goddard College would like to congratulate Erik Rodgers, recipient of the 2016 Goddard/PEN Center USA Scholarship.
Rodgers received a bachelor’s in theater and English from the University of New Mexico. He has written and directed two independent films, Disappearing in America (2009) and Carrier (2011).
As a student in Goddard’s MFA program,  Rodgers will write a historical novel set in the 1600s in upstate New York. The novel will explore “the violent and changing world of early colonial America, the conflict between European and Native ways of life and the role that magic and witchcraft played in both of those cultures.”
The Goddard/PEN Center USA Scholarship, the result of a partnership between Goddard’s MFA in Creative Writing Program and PEN Center USA, is awarded to an applicant to the MFA in Creative Writing who is a past PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow. This first award is made possible by a generous gift from faculty and friends of Goddard College.

About Goddard College

The mission of Goddard College is to advance cultures of rigorous inquiry, collaboration, and lifelong learning, where individuals take imaginative and responsible action in the world.  Goddard College offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in a number of disciplines. Founded in 1976, Goddard’s low-residency MFA in Creative Writing Program was the first of its kind in the nation. The low-residency program is offered at campuses in Plainfield, Vermont, and Port Townsend, Washington. It is a 48-credit, student-centered program ideal for students with family, work, or personal obligations who choose to hone their writing skills while maintaining their other commitments. The program regularly hosts luminaries from the theater and film industries and the publishing trade, and conducts a Visiting Writers Series and Visiting Alumni Writers Series as well.