As it turns out, the novel will be published. The Center of Everything comes out this month, in fact, and the advance I received for it is enough to sustain me while I work on my next book. I am a working writer now-it's still hard for me to believe-and I owe not a small part of my happiness to Phillips Exeter Academy and the George Bennett Fellowship.

So I was delighted to be invited back to Exeter for the 35th Bennett Fellow Reunion this past April. Elias Kulukundis '55, whose generosity and inspiration created the Bennett Fellowship, would be attending. I was excited for the opportunity to thank him in person.

Gina Apostol (above left), the 1997-98 Bennett Fellow, talks about the writing life while Maggie Dietz (right), the current fellow, listens.

But when I got to the reunion, it became clear that if I wanted to thank Elias Kulukundis for changing my life, I would have to get in line. Seventeen other Bennett Fellows showed up for the reunion as well, each as grateful as I. Bruce Dobler, the first Bennett Fellow, clearly recalled the moment he learned he'd won the fellowship back in 1968. He'd been working six nights a week as a movie projectionist in Iowa, using the 15-minute intervals between reel changes to work on his book. One night his wife and children showed up at the theater to tell him the good news in person: Exeter had called. He remembered dancing with his family in the projection room. "I was so happy," Dobler said. "I was finally going to have a chance to write."

Dobler, who has since written and published four books and countless articles, said it would be difficult to exaggerate the impact Elias Kulukundis and the Bennett Fellowship had on his life. "It had not previously occurred to me that I could just quit my job to write," Dobler told me. "I grew up with working class values-you had to bring in a paycheck. I had a family to support as well. But my year at Exeter taught me that if I had the time, I wouldn't just screw around. I would write." Dobler said the self-knowledge he gained during his fellowship year later gave him the courage to leave a public relations job in order to make time for his writing.

Bennett Fellowship director Charlie Pratt '52 (above left) shares a laugh with fellowship founder Elias Kulukundis '55 (center) and the 1976-77 fellow Tim Norris (above right).

Other Bennett Fellows agreed their year at Exeter not only gave them time, but confidence. "Winning the fellowship gave me a sense of legitimacy, an idea that I could actually call myself a writer," said Anne Campisi, the 2001-2002 Bennett Fellow. Too often, a Catch-22 exists in the mind of the general public: unpublished writers aren't considered "real" writers, and people can be dismissive of beginning writers' efforts at the time when they most need encouragement and support. Lucy Ferris, who has gone on to publish five novels, a book of short stories and several essays since her 1979-1980 Fellowship, remembers how supportive the Exeter community was when she was still unpublished: "It was so wonderful. People were actually saying, 'We don't want to interfere with your time' to me. It was very encouraging."

It must have been strange to be Elias Kulukundis at the Bennett Fellow Reunion, spending two days with 18 virtual strangers who wanted to tell him, in no uncertain terms, that he had had a profound effect on their lives. Despite all the testaments of appreciation, Kulukundis remained self-effacing, maintaining that he had been inspired to create the fellowship as a way to say thank you to the teacher who had changed his life: George Bennett '23 (1905-1965), who taught English at the Academy for 35 years and who helped develop Exeter's creative writing program. Kulukundis, who has published a translation of Both Sides of the Ocean by the Soviet novelist Viktor Nekrasov, as well as his own works, The Feasts of Memory and The Amorgos Conspiracy, attributed his success as a writer to his former teacher. "I wouldn't have written any books if it hadn't been for George Bennett," Kulukundis told an audience that included Bennett's widow, Violette. "George Bennett's teaching style debunked the myth that a great teacher needs to be assertive and dominant. You never realized he was teaching, and that made it very easy to learn."

Ironically, none of the Bennett Fellows ever met George Bennett, the teacher who so inspired Kulukundis and the generosity that would help so many struggling writers realize their potentials. But I imagine I was not the only one in the audience who, hearing about a masterful teacher who taught with thoughtful reserve, remembered Rex McGuinn, who welcomed myself and so many other Bennett Fellows to campus with the same quiet encouragement he used in the classroom. Kulukundis' reminder of the power a great teacher has to change a life made me think of how many lives Rex must have affected before his untimely death last fall. Some of his students may go on to change the lives of others, as Kulukundis has done, in an effort to pay tribute. The possibilities are endless.

I suppose this is the way great teachers-great people, really-outlive themselves. They inspire others to inspire others to inspire others, creating a ripple effect of generosity and encouragement that will reach further than any one generation can see.

Students had a chance to meet the Bennett Fellows during two panel discussions and to hear them read from their work during an evening gathering at Phillips Church.

I spent half my life dreaming of being able to write a novel. Since I've realized this dream, I need to find a new one. Of course I'll worry over the second book, but now that I've written one, writing another doesn't seem as daunting. If I'm going to dream big again, really big, as in the kind of dream that will make my sister tell me not to get my hopes up, then I might as well come out and say I want to do what Elias Kulukundis has done. I want, some day, to be successful enough at writing, at something, to be able to create a fellowship of my own, one for unpublished writers, just like the George Bennett Fellowship. I want to keep this inspiration thing going. In the spirit of George Bennett, Elias Kulukundis, Rex McGuinn and all the great teachers who have touched my life, it seems the least I can do.