The Expository Writing Program will lose one of its most popular teachers this summer when David S. Gewanter, one of six head preceptors, joins the faculty at Georgetown University as an associate professor of poetry.

A recipient of the Levenson Award for Undergraduate Teaching, Gewanter taught Expository Writing 20: "The Craft of Stories" last semester and Expos 11: "Literary Transformations" last year.

"He is in many respects our best teacher," said Assistant Director of Expository Writing Gordon C. Harvey. "He is a wonderful poet, a superb teacher and a brilliant administrator."

His students had similar praise.

"I really enjoyed having him as a preceptor," said Meghna S. Majmudar '99, who took Expos 11 with him last year. "I always got the feeling that Gewanter was a writer, that he really cared and knew about the writing process."

Gewanter also served as director of the creative writing program at Harvard Extension School and Harvard Summer School.

While serving in this position, Gewanter redefined the program, beginning a student magazine and introducing a new masters degree in creative writing.

Gewanter will move to Washington, D.C., this summer with his wife, who has secured an adjunct position at Georgetown and will teach English.

"Georgetown presents the unique opportunity of allowing me to teach the study and writing of poems as well as writing my own poems," said David Gewanter, who published his first book of poetry, In the Belly, this year. "It was an irresistible offer."

Gewanter began his relationship with Harvard in 1984, when he spent a semester here as an exchange graduate student from the University of California at Berkeley.

During that time, he was inspired by the poetry of Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory Seamus Heaney, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature two years ago.

He subsequently earned a Ph.D. in English at Berkeley and returned to Harvard to work as an Expos preceptor in 1990.

"[I've] grown up as a teacher and a writer. I've been transformed from a never-ending grad student to a middle-aged academic," Gewanter said.

"Boston is the greatest environment for poets--it is quite inspiring to be at Harvard," he said. "I don't think I'll ever get to work with such an amazing group of undergraduates again."

Gewanter will be on a tenure track at Georgetown. He said he hopes to secure tenure within seven years and plans to continue publishing his poetry