Faculty Spotlight: A Farewell to Hilene Flanzbaum, Professor of English and the Allegra Stewart Chair in Modern Literature

by Kellie Stewart
April 2024

Throughout her 32-year career at Butler University, Hilene Flanzbaum, PhD, has filled many roles.

She served as Director of the First Year Seminar Program, Chair of the English Department, Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing, and Faculty Director of the Butler’s Core Curriculum. She’s the faculty advisor for Butler’s Jewish Culture Affinity Group and Butler Hillel, as well as the director of the Creative Writing for Wellness Initiative.

At different times, Flanzbaum has chaired the Faculty Affairs Committee, the Professional Standards Committee, and the Provost’s Committee for Academic Innovation. A specialist in Jewish-American and twentieth-century literature, she  is the editor of, “The Americanization of the Holocaust” (Johns Hopkins, 1999), the managing editor of “Jewish-American Literature: A Norton Anthology” (Norton, 2001) and “The Holocaust Across Borders” (Rowan and Littlefield, 2022), and edited a special issue of “Studies in Jewish American Literature”on the Jewish woman in popular culture.

She has published poems and essays, both creatively and scholarly in more than three dozen popular culture and academic journals, including for “O! Magazine” and the Yale Journal of Criticism.

This May, she will transition into her next role as she retires as Professor of English and the Allegra Stewart Chair in Modern Literature after more than three decades at Butler University.

“I was hired for my PhD in literature, but they also wanted me to teach creative writing,” said Flanzbaum. “From the beginning, the job at Butler was a surprise because I could do both.”

Flanzbaum applied for a position in Butler’s English Department in 1991. At the time, she had just completed her Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and was finishing a two-year visiting appointment at Haverford College. Previously, she received her M.A. in Poetry from Johns Hopkins University, and her B.A. in English from Brandeis University.

“When I came here for my job interview, I met Susan [Neville, Butler English Emerita Faculty and co-founder of the Butler MFA in Creative Writing  graduate program],” Flanzbaum said. “She was really excited because I had a PhD in literature, but I also had an MA [in poetry] previous to that. Right away, I started teaching creative writing.”

Raised as a self-described New Yorker, Flanzbaum had never ventured to the state of Indiana prior to her interview at Butler.

“I’d been in Boston, Philly, D.C. I did what they call the Northeast megalopolis,” she said.

“It was really scary for me to come to Indiana. We didn’t know a soul. We didn’t have any family here. We didn’t have family anywhere but the east coast.”

When Flanzbaum and her husband arrived in Indianapolis in August of 1991, the differences between the hustle of the east coast and their new home in the Midwest was stark–even when it came to coffee.  

“[Back then], there was no place to go for a cup of coffee,” she said. “I kept on asking people, ‘where do you go for a cup of coffee?’ and they weren’t even familiar with the idiom; to go for a cup of coffee.”

Despite the initial culture shock, Flanzbaum and her husband settled in and raised their two children here.

“The ease of life in Indianapolis is very compelling and you get used to it.”

As she adjusted to Indy, Flanzbaum stayed busy with her work at Butler. Alongside English department faculty members Andy Levy, Susan Neville, and Bill Watts, Flanzbaum played an integral role in establishing Butler’s MFA in Creative Writing program. From 2011 to 2017, she served as the program’s director.

“As time has gone on, I have felt much more strongly that the MFA program was the best thing I did,” said Flanzbaum. “I think it’s been great for the community and great for the students. For me personally, it has so enriched my life here.”

With specialties in Modern and American Poetry, Jewish-American Literature, Twentieth-Century Literature and creative writing, Flanzbaum taught a variety of English and creative writing classes over the years, including First-year Writing, Modern and Postmodern American Poetry, the Memoir, Literature of the Holocaust, Race and Reconstruction, African American Literature, the 1950s in American Literature and Culture, and graduate creative nonfiction workshops. In her final semester before retiring, Flanzbaum is teaching modern poetry–her “first love.”

“Close to half the time that I’ve been here [the MFA has been going on]. Working with the MFA program and the Visiting Writers Series–those two things has really been the highlight of my time here.”

Through her work with the Vivian S. Delbrook Visiting Writers Series, Flanzbaum had the opportunity to spend time with several notable writers, including the poet Allen Ginsberg. An experience she describes as “a memory that I’ll have forever.”

In regards to her perspective on retirement, Flanzbaum plans to return to where it all began for her.

“For me, I really hope to return to poetry. Poetry’s my first love,” she said. “I hope to write poetry and paint. I want to dance more and spend more time with dogs. And I want to be able to travel. So, all those things.”

As she reflects on her distinguished career at Butler University, Flanzbaum holds onto fond memories and the many relationships she’s built along the way.

“You can’t be in any place as long as I’ve been without making some really good friends. You just can’t,” she said. “Whether they’re from Indiana or New York or California or Timbuktu. I’ve met some wonderful people, not just at Butler, but also in the Indianapolis community.”

Flanzbaum also has hope of a bright and enduring future for the MFA program that she helped establish and played an integral role in shaping.

“I want the MFA program to continue to thrive,” said Flanzbaum.  “In terms of what I’ll remember about my experience at Butler, much of it will be the MFA program and those were all good memories. I loved working with everybody, the faculty, the students. I feel nothing but affection for them and the [Creative Writing] house and that was the best thing.”

The Butler English department, MFA in Creative Writing, and Provost’s office are hosting a retirement celebration honoring Flanzbaum on Tuesday, May 7th at 4:00-6:00 p.m. at the Efroymson Center for Creative Writing [530 W Hampton Dr, Indianapolis]. Current and former students, friends, and colleagues are welcome to celebrate Flanzbaum’s extensive career at Butler.