Fillman Named Recipient of 2026 John P. Schellenberg Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Dr. Robert Fillman, assistant professor of English, was awarded Kutztown University's 2026 John P. Schellenberg Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. The award was presented during the university's Faculty and Staff Convocation and Celebration Friday, Aug. 21.

The John P. Schellenberg Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning was established by John P. Schellenberg, emeriti professor of physical science, faculty alumni and friends to recognize an early career faculty member who has demonstrated outstanding work.

Fillman's research and teaching interests include 19th- and 20th-century American literature, U.S. modernism, ecocriticism, the study of poetics and modern and contemporary American poetry. His research focuses on the relationship between literature and the environment, especially the way American writers represent the natural world.

In his teaching, Fillman seeks to foster a vibrant classroom community in which all participants have an opportunity to develop their critical and creative capacities in a supportive and engaging workshop atmosphere. In addition, he serves as chair of the Kutztown University Composition Conference (KUCC) and faculty advisor to the Future Authors Club. He is also the Poetry Editor at Pennsylvania English, the annual peer-reviewed journal published by the Pennsylvania College English Association.

His literary criticism has appeared in journals such as ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, College Literature, Journal of Modern Literature, and elsewhere. He has published on the important but often overlooked Harlem Renaissance poet Helene Johnson, as well as American poets Jean Toomer, William Carlos Williams and Ron Rash. His forthcoming work includes articles on the modernist poet Robert Frost and the Pennsylvania poet Len Roberts.

He is the author of two full-length poetry collections: House Bird (Terrapin Books, 2022) and The Melting Point (Broadstone Books, 2025), and the chapbook November Weather Spell (Main Street Rag Publishing Company, 2019). Recent poems have appeared in The Hollins Critic, Nashville Review, Poet Lore, Poetry East, Sugar House Review, Tar River Poetry, Valparaiso Poetry Review and others.

Fillman was the inaugural winner of the E. Ethelbert Miller Poetry Prize at The Twin Bill Journal in 2023. He received an Editor's Choice Award in 2023 from Sheila-Na-Gig Online. He has also been a finalist for the Gerald Cable Book Award, the Keystone Chapbook Contest and the Rash Award in Poetry.

Fillman earned a Ph.D. in English Literature from Lehigh University, a Master of Arts in English Literature from Arcadia University and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Business Management from Moravian College.