Credit: Robert Barker/Cornell University

James McConkey, right, the Goldwin Smith Professor of English Literature Emeritus, and his wife, Gladys McConkey, chat with Stan Taft, Cornell associate professor of art and interim dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, Jan. 24, at a reception celebrating the James McConkey Summer Fellowship in Creative Writing, which will support a second-year MFA student who is completing a thesis. The fellowship was endowed by one of McConkey's former undergraduate students who wishes to remain anonymous. McConkey, an original member of the MFA faculty, is author of "Court of Memory," "To a Distant Island," "Stories From My Life With the Other Animals," "Rowan's Progress," "Kayo," "Crossroads" and "The Telescope in the Parlor."