Reno Reporter

A University of Nevada, Reno, professor has been named one of this year’s Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents’ Creative Activities Award recipients.

Michael Branch, a professor of English for the College of Liberal Arts, was awarded the honor to go with his 2017 Nevada Writer's Hall of Fame Silver Pen accolade for his 10th book, "On the Trail of the Jackalope," according to an April 7 article on the university website.

“I really like what I do; that’s what matters the most,” Branch said.

The award is presented annually and recognizes “significant accomplishments which bring recognition, as well as national and international stature, to the Nevada System of Higher Education,” the release stated.

Branch devoted the first half of his career to academic writing and research, according to the release. He is now focused on creative writing, which he claims, gives him new energy.

Researching jackalopes taught Branch that all cultures have mythical creatures, according to the university.

 “You lose the ability to engage in that imaginative world if you don’t have a landscape wild enough to make it possible to seem that something wild can be there,” he said. “Nevada is big enough for the imagination, and that’s big enough for something wild.”