Bellefonte poet and Penn State University professor of English Julia Kasdorf was honored with the Outstanding Contribution Award at the 2024 Writers Conference of Northern Appalachia.
WCoNA recognizes an individual or entity every year whose contributions or literary work have furthered the organization’s mission to the region’s distinct literature and people and/or whose contributions have enhanced the craft of the organization’s authors, inspiring new work representing northern Appalachia.
“Kasdorf’s body of work and literary citizenship goes beyond honoring the northern Appalachia canon,” Kimberly McElhatten, who nominated Kasdorf, explained. “They advocate for it — its land, its animals, its plants, its people, its cultures, its diversity and its stories to be heard.”
Author of five poetry collections, Kasdorf was recognized for her impact on northern Appalachia’s literature, more specifically focusing on preserving and elevating Amish and Mennonite voices in the region. Her most recent works include “As Is” from the Pitt Poetry Series, the essay collection “The Body and the Book: Writing from A Mennonite Life” and the biography “Fixing Tradition: Joseph W. Yoder, Amish American.”
Growing up in Westmoreland County near Irwin, Kasdorf was raised by Mennonite parents who traded their rural community and lifestyle for work close to Pittsburgh during her childhood.
“The nomination came as a surprise, and of course I feel honored that my work has been recognized in this way. In my early 60s, I can look back and see a pattern or expression of value that comes from many years of making small choices that just seemed to make sense at the time,” Kasdorf remarked.
Kasdorf has also edited or co-edited three books, including “The House of the Black Ring: A Romance of the Seven Mountains,” written by Fred Lewis Pattee and co-edited by Joshua R. Brown. Additionally, she collaborated with an award-winning documentary photographer, Steven Rubin, on the book “Shale Play: Poems and Photographs from the Fracking Fields.”
Kasdorf is noted as a distinguished voice in American poetry, renowned for her vivid portrayal of the ridge and valley region of northern Appalachia. Twenty-one of her poems have been featured on NPR’s “The Writer’s Almanac” and in various magazines, such as “Prairie Schooner,” the “Gettysburg Review,” “The New Yorker” and “The Paris Review.”
“Most importantly, her mentorship extends beyond the classroom and public eye, offering emerging writers’ valuable mentorship, guidance and support on their journey to successful publishing and academic careers, many of whom are also doing good, important work across northern Appalachia at our universities and colleges elevating and diversifying our literary representation,” McElhatten emphasized.
Kasdorf’s legacy of community outreach and literary citizenship is highlighted through the Outstanding Contribution Award. She founded Messiah College’s first literary series open to the public, in Mechanicsburg, and at Penn State, she introduced the “Writing in Community” course in addition to teaching Master of Fine Arts students to teach in non-academic settings such as long-term care facilities, community youth centers, teen shelters, jails and more.
At Penn State, Kasdorf directs the Creative Writing Project, where she’s contributed to many community-facing projects for the last 24 years, such as the Public Poetry Project, Centre County Reads and the Favorite Poem Project of State College.
Kasdorf is also active in communities outside of the university, including the popular reading series “Out Loud in Bellefonte.” She’s also served as a Pennsylvania Humanities commonwealth speaker and she’s a frequent instructor at Chatham University’s Summer Community of Writers in Pittsburgh and the Chautauqua Institute in Chautauqua, New York.
Collaborating with university and community artists, Kasdorf conceived and wrote songs for the musical performance and filmed oral histories about the invention of the folding Ferris wheel in Centre Hall, which was first performed as “aMUSEment: Play in the Workshop” and later as “Bright Toys of Summer: Garbrick Amusements from the Workshop to the Fair.”
Recently, Kasdorf helped organize a local history project to research and make the 19th- and 20th-century Black history of Centre County visible. She mentored the writing of and produced a staged reading and musical performance of a play based on said research called “Finding Home: Adeline Lawson Graham, Colored Citizen of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.”
“In addition to her legacy as an influential literary citizen of northern Appalachia, Kasdorf is a documentary poet who records and preserves our diverse stories with a keen eye on the impact of industry, war and politics on our people,” McElhatten stated.
WCoNA is donating to Ridgeline Language Arts in honor of Kasdorf’s contributions. Ridgeline Language Arts partners with local groups and social service organizations to provide language arts programs to those marginalized in the ridges and valleys of central Pennsylvania.
“I’m grateful that Ridgeline Language Arts will benefit from the award, because I respect the organization and their work so much,” Kasdorf noted.
WCoNA aims to bring together writers and others interested in the region’s literature to honor bodies of work and enhance the craft of the organization’s authors. The organization looks to inspire more novels, poetry, essays, history, memoirs, dramas and other modes of literary writing that in some way represent northern Appalachia.
