About Glenn

From his first job as corporate vice president for Ramada, he worked his way up to become the president and chief financial officer of the multibillion-dollar Mandalay Resort Group. In 2005, the year the Mandalay Bay Resort merged with MGM Mirage, the Mandalay Bay Resort Group rented one percent of all hotel nights in the U.S. With the merger, Schaeffer left the company and embarked upon the recreation of a multibillion-dollar hotel resort, Miami’s famed Fontainebleau.

As his worldly success grew, Glenn Schaeffer became a potent philanthropist in the national and international literary community. At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, he established the International Institute of Modern Letters—also called the Black Mountain Institute—which promotes, translates, and protects international writers. In 2000, he established Las Vegas as the first U.S. City of Asylum, a refuge for writers who have had to leave their native countries. (See City of Asylum ) With a lead gift from Schaeffer, UCI established the International Center for Writing and Translation in the School of Humanities. The center fosters writing, translation and criticism in multilingual and international contexts. It also supports writers, translators and critics from around the world via short residencies, and by bringing them together for readings, performances, lectures and international conferences. In 2000, the Glenn Schaeffer was the founding patron to further develop the Creative Writing  program at Victoria University in Wellington, and the New Zealand headquarters of the IIML was inaugurated in March 2001. Partnership links were also established with the Iowa Writers Workshop, the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California Irvine, and the creative writing program at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. The IIML’s US office was subsequently incorporated into the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has supported young writers worldwide, establishing the Schaeffer Fellowships at the University of California Irvine and Victoria University.

Although his literary interests have taken him all over the world, Schaeffer has maintained his commitment to and respect for the Writers Workshop. He visits Iowa City regularly and has made generous contributions to the Workshop Library. Most significantly, Schaeffer is the primary donor for the Glenn Schaeffer Library and Archives. This beautiful addition to the workshops existing home in the Dey House provides a wonderful space for creative and academic work, as well as a gathering place for community events such as the Writers Workshop Lecture Series. 

Schaeffer also continues to pursue his love of literature and the arts in other important ways: he sits on the board of the National Poetry Series, is an avid collector of American minimalist paintings, and has a broad collection of first editions of American poetry, including many works by Walt Whitman, his favorite poet.