Christopher Leland is one of six faculty members to receive the Wayne State University President's Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award recognizes faculty who have made outstanding contributions to teaching and includes a$2,500 honorarium.

Leland, of Detroit, is a professor in the English department and director of creative writing at WSU. His specialty is fiction writing and he has received numerous Fulbright teaching and research awards. In addition, Leland is the author of several critically acclaimed novels and a recent comprehensive book on publishing. He received a WSU Board of Governors Distinguished Faculty Fellowship in 1997.

Creative writing at WSU is flourishing under his direction. Leland has the respect and friendship of many prominent writers and brings them to campus to conduct informal master classes. His contacts across the publishing community provide networking opportunities for his students.

Leland is known for his ability to sustain a high level of discussion in his writing classes. He is recognized as an extraordinary mentor, generous with his time, his advice and encouragement of students and colleagues. A frequent speaker at scholarly conferences, Leland also has provided leadership for the Detroit Festival of the Arts and the Loughhead-Eldredge Visiting Writer series.

Leland teaches American literature of the 20th century, comparative literature, gay and lesbian literature and Latin American literature. Fluent in Spanish, he has taught American literature in Spanish as well as Latin American literature in the United States.

He received his bachelor's degree from Pomona College and completed post-baccalaureate work at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina. His master's and doctoral degrees are from the University of California at San Diego. Leland joined the Wayne faculty in 1990.