Title: English Educator (Retired), Writer, Publisher and Visual Artist
Company: Eastern New Mexico University
Location: Portales, New Mexico, United States
Antony Oldknow, PhD, retired English Educator, Writer, Publisher, and Visual Artist at Eastern New Mexico University, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements, and leadership in English.
Dr. Oldknow was inspired to write by his King’s School, Peterborough English master, Mr. John D. Mowat, who, when Oldknow was twelve, introduced his class to the work of poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Dr. Oldknow was immediately intrigued by Hopkins’ writing style and set about emulating him. Eventually, he developed his own distinct writing style and succeeded with his dream of becoming a well-published writer. He studied at the University of Leeds and in 1961 earned an honors BA in English there, followed by a Graduate Certificate in Education in 1963. Continuing his higher education goals, in 1964, Oldknow earned a Post-Graduate Diploma in Phonetics from the University of Edinburgh, later taking graduate courses from 1968 to 1969 in Linguistics and Computer Science at The University of Chicago. After gaining an M.Ed. from the University of Wisconsin in 1982, he earned a PhD in English from the University of North Dakota.
Dr. Oldknow has had many career highlights. One of his major highlights was serving as Chair of the Council of Chairs at Eastern New Mexico University between 1993 and 1999. He has also had the pleasure of encounters during his career with figures like T.S. Elliot, Dick Gregory, Anne Sexton, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Dr. Oldknow’s full-time teaching career began as a lecturer in English at the Scotland’s Cowdenbeath Technical College from 1962 to 1964. He then became a professeur-assistant de Linguistique at Québec’s Université Laval from 1964 to 1966, later becoming an assistant professor of English at North Dakota State University from 1966 till 1972. From 1972 to 1976, Dr. Oldknow was a graduate teaching assistant in the English Department at the University of North Dakota, where in 1976 he was promoted to Instructor of English. He moved on to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 1976 remaining there until 1984, where he held the positions of Poet in Residence and Academic Coordinator. The following three years, he was an instructor of English at The University of Kansas. In 1987, he moved on to Eastern New Mexico University, where he remained until he retired as an Emeritus Professor in 2012. During his tenure, he held successively the positions of assistant professor, associate professor, and professor. Dr. Oldknow has also been the editor of numerous magazines and has written many novels, short stories, and poems.
Indeed, in his professional life, rather than as a professor, Dr. Oldknow is best known as a well-published writer and translator of French, Italian, and Medieval English. Since 1966, he has been the small-press publisher and general editor of the Scopcræft Press, which has now produced over 260 titles. It is evident that all his specialties are intertwined: he is also a railroad historian, classical music and sports enthusiast, and a lifelong painter and photographer, whose work has been exhibited and sold in the U.S. and the U.K. A dynamic speaker and actor, he has also given many performances in five countries and 25 U.S. states, both in person and on radio, TV, and film.
A respected voice in his areas of expertise, Dr. Oldknow’s published writings include the short story collections, Dr. Upex and the Great God Ing: Fifteen Weird Unexpected Stories (2018), and The Passion Play and Other Ghost Stories (2006); the poetry and translation collection Wanderers (2013); The Selected Early Poems Collection, Alive with Souls (2012); the magic-realism novel, Invasions (2010); the education article “The Curse of College English: Freshman Composition” (2012); the composition textbook, Precision Writing (1998), and many others. His latest poetry collection is Into the Arms of My Last Night’s Winter (102 poems), 2021. He became a U.S. citizen in 1995.
As testament to his success, Dr. Oldknow was given a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English award from Eastern New Mexico University in 2017, the President’s Award for service from Eastern New Mexico University in 1991, and, in 1972, a Governor of North Dakota Citation as a North Dakota Distinguished Writer. Furthermore, he has been listed in the 26th edition of Who’s Who in the West, the first edition of Who’s Who in the Media and Communication, and the eighth edition of Who’s Who in American Education.
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