Early promise inspires creative writing scholarship

December 30, 2015

"What would I do
If my love and I were sitting on a park bench
Watching children play in filtered sunlight
On a warm and placid June afternoon
And dreaming lovely little dreams,
And Death came and called my name?"

The beginning lines of a poem, written by University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student Kristine Grimsrud in a creative writing class in March of 1969, channel a youthful spirit of reflection. The words took on a tragic meaning in a few short years, when Grimsrud died from injuries sustained in an airplane crash in 1974, at the age of 26.

More than 40 years later, Grimsrud's legacy lives on not just through the words she left behind and the shared talent for writing exhibited by her three siblings — one sister's children's stories have been syndicated in newspapers, and a brother is a novelist writing under a pseudonym — but through a creative writing scholarship created by the Grimsrud family in her memory at UW-Whitewater. The scholarship is the result of a bequest of $100,000, which represents Grimsrud's portion of her parent's estate.

A Milwaukee native, Grimsrud grew up in Wauwatosa. After she graduated with a degree in English in 1970, she embraced life, traveling through 15 countries in Europe with her younger sister and picking grapefruit and learning Hebrew on a kibbutz in Israel. By the time of her death, she had taught high school English, started a master's degree program in comparative literature and earned her real estate broker's license.

All along, she wrote poems, stories and the beginnings of a novel — often on scraps of paper. It was her younger sister, Frances Grimsrud Milburn, who found the writing in boxes in her closet.

"Her poems are like a biography of her life," said Milburn, who gathered the works into a book in the year following the crash. Grimsrud's parents set the money for the bequest aside soon after, but the family waited to make the donation until after Grimsrud's mother died in 2014.

"This generous endowment is extraordinary because it allows for an annual scholarship of $4,000," said Marilyn Durham, chair of the Department of Languages and Literatures. "This award will encourage and empower gifted, young poets, screenwriters and novelists for generations to come. Our creative writing program is thrilled that Kristine's family, in honoring her memory, has been so forward-looking and innovative in ensuring that aspiring writers are supported in their studies and struggles to find their voices."

Milburn visited campus with her husband, Lee Buescher, in November to finalize the scholarship criteria and plan for a celebration on April 28, 2016, when the first annual scholarship will be awarded and selections of Grimsrud's poetry will be read aloud. She brought photos and other mementos from her sister, as well as copies of "Waiting For a Flash of Brilliance," an updated anthology of poems compiled and published earlier in the year with the help of Marilyn Annucci, associate professor of languages and literatures.

"The poems in the provocative collection contain a rawness of feeling, a truth-telling poignancy that captures life when we are young and curious and keenly alive," wrote Annucci in the forward to the book. "I can only imagine how much more Kristine would have had to say had she lived and been writing today. I am grateful to Frances Milburn for bringing to light these wonderful poems."

For Milburn, the experience of revisiting the poems was poignant. "I get to see her now, from the perspective of middle age, to see that she was wise beyond her years."

But it's the idea that, because of her sister, young writers for years to come will have an added opportunity to express themselves through their words that means the most to her.

"I love the idea that a student who is passionate about writing will have a scholarship so they can write and explore that side of themselves."