Dr. Sarah Wider is the recipient of this year’s Distinguished Achievement Award for her outstanding scholarly work and leadership in Emerson studies. Sarah is a professor at Colgate University and a past president of RWES. She also served as RWES Program chair, the book review editor for the Emerson Society Papers, and as a member of the Advisory Board. Her many publications, including her book The Critical Reception of Emerson: Unsettling All Things (Camden House, 2000), contribute to our understanding not only of Emerson’s ideas and their relevance, but also of the important role women writers had in the development of Transcendentalism. Her scholarly interests include Native American writers and Buddhist philosophy. In her latest book, The Art of True Relations: Conversations on the Poetic Heart of Human Possibility (Dialogue Path Press, 2014) co-authored with Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda, she celebrates Emerson and other writers who have inspired her work as an educator and advocate for peace.
Dr. Sarah Wider receives the 2015 RWES Distinguished Achievement Award from president Sue Dunston at the 2015 ALA conference.