Steven Edwards, english studies assistant professor, was awarded $10,000 from the Massachusetts Cultural Council as one of its 2014 creative writing fellows.

Edwards has been an assistant professor at Fitchburg State since 2011. The award-winning author’s books include the memoir Breaking into the Backcountry (University of Nebraska Press, 2010), which tells the story of his time as the caretaker of a 92-acre homestead along the Rogue National Wild and Scenic River in southwestern Oregon. His writing can be found in recent issues of Orion, Electric Literature, AGNI Online, Terrain.org, and The Good Men Project.

Samuel Tobin, communications media professor, published Portable Play in Everyday Life via Palgrave Pivot in October, 2013. Despite the fact that the Nintendo DS is one of the most popular game systems of all time, theorists have largely ignored it.

In the book, Tobin argues that the reason for this is the DS is literally and figuratively beneath notice, not just by game scholars but its own players as well. Indeed, it is the very “everydayness” of the Nintendo DS and of mobile gaming in general that is invisible yet filled with critical potential.

The Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013 was a moment we will never forget, and for Katherine Jewell, economics, history and political science professor, it was personal.

Jewell, pushing her 3-year-old son in a stroller, was close enough to the second explosion to feel the blast and smell the smoke. In the tumultuous days that followed, Jewell turned to her training as a historian in an attempt to make sense of the experience, chronicling the details, locations and conversations that erupted from the chaos.

Susan Rosa, education professor, was recognized with the Joel D. Miller Award in June at the annual retired educators luncheon, held at Hammond Hall.

The Miller Award was established in 1955 in honor of the state senator and member of the Board of Education, who is considered one of the three founders of the State Normal School in Fitchburg (which was later known, of course, as Fitchburg State). Miller Hall is also named after him. The award is given to an educator who has demonstrated originality in their profession, given unselfish devotion to the profession and exerted an influence for good among their students.