Spaar racks up another award

UVA English professor and poet Lisa Russ Spaar is one of 12 Virginia higher-ed teachers to receive a 2010 Outstanding Faculty Award. Recipients are chosen by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and the philanthropic arm of Dominion Resources, which chips in a $5,000 check to go with the engraved award.

Last fall, Spaar won the poetry prize from the Library of Virginia Literary Awards for her collection, Satin Cash. She also won a 2009-10 Guggenheim Fellowship.

"She is at once one of the most demanding and one of the most adored teachers in a department bursting with excellent teachers, generating an extraordinary loyalty among her students," says department chair Cynthia Wall in a release. "And around the university, as well as around the country, Lisa Spaar works with indefatigable charm to create a community of scholars and poets."