Faculty Bios
Spring 2005 “Collaboration among the Arts”

Nick Flynn, Assistant Professor, Creative Writing Program
Nick Flynn's first book, Some Ether (Graywolf Press, 2000), a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize, won the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award, a Discovery/THE NATION prize, and The Larry Levis Reading Prize from Virginia Commonwealth University. Blind Huber, his second collection of poetry, appeared from Graywolf in 2002. Stanley Kunitz has called it, “an act of the poetic imagination unlike any other.” He has also been awarded fellowships from the Library of Congress and the Guggenheim Foundation, as well as an Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Fellowship, which allowed him to spend the last two years moving between Italy, Ireland, and Tanzania. Flynn’s latest publication, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, a memoir about his father and homelessness, was recently released from Norton in September 2004 and has already received widespread praise and critical acclaim.

Jonathan Middents, Associate Professor, School of Theatre
Jonathan Middents teaches design and production courses in stagecraft, lighting, sound, makeup, scene painting, and stage management. As Production Manager of the School of Theatre, Jon oversees the design and technical aspects of all the University of Houston’s theatre productions, including its two professional summer festivals, the Houston Shakespeare Festival and The Children’s Theatre Festival. Middents also regularly designs for the University of Houston productions, UH-Downtown, and Unity Theatre in Brenham. Jon has been designer or technical director in over 200 theatre, opera, and television productions for such companies as Austin Theatre for Young People, UH Opera, The Lone Star, KLRN-TV, KUHT-TV, Clear Creek Community Theatre, Tallahassee Community Theatre, FSU Opera, Houston Community College, Main Street Theatre, and many others. Additionally, he has been involved in the design or renovation of nine separate theatres.

Jon Middents received his BA from Rice University ('70) and an MFA from Florida State University ('74), and has worked previously as designer/technical director at Indiana State University, the University of Texas at Austin, and University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Karyn Olivier, Assistant Professor, Sculpture, School of Art
Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Professor Olivier received her BA from Dartmouth College, her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, and she recently completed the Core Fellowship Residency at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Olivier is also a recipient of Skowhegan’s Camille Hanks Cosby Fellowship for African-American artists. In 2002 Olivier exhibited her first solo show at Houston’s own Project Row Houses. Her work has been exhibited regionally and nationally in group exhibitions at the Nave Museum (Victoria, TX), the Galveston Fine Arts Center, the Dallas Center for Contemporary Art, the Glassell School of Art and the Soap Factory (Minneapolis, MN). In 2004, she will participate in a group show at the Sculpture Center in New York City. Additionally, Professor Olivier’s work is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Rob Smith, Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory, Moores School of Music
Rob Smith received his DMA in composition at the University of Texas at Austin. A recipient of the Fulbright Grant to Sydney, Australia, Smith studied with Peter Sculthorpe and taught at Australia's University of Wollongong. At the University of Houston, Rob directs the Aura Contemporary Ensemble and also teaches composition and music theory. His music is frequently performed throughout the US and abroad by ensembles such as the Continuum Ensemble (London), Coruscations (Sydney), Synchronia (St. Louis), Montague-Mead Piano Plus (London), and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. Presently, Rob is composing a new work for the Syracuse New Music Ensemble as a part of the American Composers Forum's Continental Harmony project. His music is published by Southern Music Co. and Skitter Music Publications.