*

1.26.2010

2010 nea literature fellowships

The National Endowment for the Arts recently announced its 2010 Literature Fellows. This year the fellowships are awarded to creative writers working in prose. Notable Asian American writers selected this year include Frances Hwang, author of Transparency, Padma Viswanathan, author of Toss of a Lemon, and Aimee Phan, author of We Should Never Meet.

Over 25,000 pages were reviewed from 993 eligible applicants. In all, the NEA chose 42 writers from across the United States, and awarded $25,000 to support writing and additional projects necessary for the writers' artistic growth.

To apply, writers submit a sample of their best work. Prose writers submit 30 pages of fiction or creative nonfiction. Poets submit 10 pages of poems. These are judged blindly by anonymous manuscript and sent to a panel of distinguished American writers who spend five months evaluating them, so it's a very intensive process.

Applications for the NEA's Creative Writing Fellowship in poetry are due this year and winners will be announced in December. (Thanks, Bryan.)