CAPOTE FELLOWSHIPS BUY TIME FOR TWO UA WRITERS

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Truman Capote once said, "I’ll give you $50 if you produce a writer who can honestly say he was helped by the prissy carpings and condescensions of reviewers."

This May, the Truman Capote Literary Trust gave the University of Arkansas $18,000 for producing two writers whose work has evolved and flourished under the intensive review system of the U of A’s MFA program in creative writing.

This marks the second year in a row that the UA program has been honored with such a gift - ranking Arkansas as one of the most successful writing schools in the nation, alongside Stanford, Yale, Cornell, University of Iowa and City University of New York.

The recent success of UA graduates verifies this reputation. Over the past five years, writers such as Susan Perabo, Brad Barkley and Gordon Grice have gained national attention for their work. In addition Tom Franklin’s book, "Poachers" won the Edgar Allen Poe Award, while Steve Yarbrough earned the Grisham Prize for his new work, "The Oxygen Man."

According to James Whitehead, director of the creative writing program, the Capote Trust offered its fellowships to the University of Arkansas, based on the quality and productivity of UA graduates as well as excellence in the program, itself.

"The fact that they have funded us for a second year is clear recognition of the quality of this program," said Whitehead.

Through financial gifts, the Truman Capote Literary Trust strives to support young writers in their efforts to produce and publish quality works of fiction and nonfiction. This year, Chris

Carpenter and Peter Kessler will reap the benefits of that mission.

As the University of Arkansas’ 1999 Capote Fellows, Carpenter and Kessler will use their $9,000 fellowships to buy more time for their writing. The income provided by the award will allow them to drop the teaching duties normally required of graduate students, enabling them to devote full attention to their creative works.

"We picked these students because of their capacity for professional writing and because they have a good shot at producing a collection of stories during their time as Capote Fellows," said Whitehead.

Carpenter, a native of Dallas, came to the U of A after receiving a bachelors degree in history at Hendrix College and a masters in literature at Texas A & M. He chose to return to Arkansas in part because of the unique four-year format of the UA program, which integrates studies of literature with the usual writing workshops.

" Reading widely and deeply is the only way to learn how to write," Carpenter said. "Workshops are good for fine-tuning ideas and for figuring out if your story works, but as far as skill goes, that comes from reading."

Kessler came to the U of A from Boston - drawn in by the four-year curriculum as well as the quality of the professors. After earning a bachelors in English at Yale, Kessler wanted to pursue the kind of intensive training that would enable his writing to develop and improve.

"I’ve learned how to write a solid, specific line and how to write a structured story that has tension - where every detail tends toward an end. I’ve learned to create humane characters and have them function in realistic ways. Every aspect of my writing has improved through this program," he said.

During the selection process for the Capote Fellowship, both writers submitted two stories to be read and judged by the UA writing faculty.

Carpenter submitted a short story called "Eat All You Take," and a work called "The Jitters," which was recently published in the literary publication, "Gulf Coast." This second story follows the antics of a woman pretending to suffer from Tourette’s Syndrome. Carpenter says one theme that continually resurfaces in his writing is the idea of fraud - the ways that people misrepresent themselves to others and within their own minds.

Kessler chose to submit his work, "Heat," which he describes as a father-and-son story, as well as "Elizabethan Principle" in which a high school principal with a fancy for Elizabethan literature decides to cheat on his wife.

"Carpenter has an outrageous imagination. He’s right on the border of magical realism or science fantasy sometimes. Peter [Kessler] is a comic writer with a great sense of plot - genuinely, sometimes impulsively witty," said Whitehead, detailing the writers’ different approaches to literature.

Though Carpenter and Kessler have different stylistic approaches to their work, their initial approaches to writing were very similar - both have been dedicated to the craft of writing since early childhood.

"I never went through the astronaut stage or the fireman stage," said Carpenter. "It was writer all the way. I saw kids reading books, being entertained by stories, and I wanted to provide that kind of entertainment. That was my grasp of what writing meant."

Decades later, Kessler and Carpenter are more committed than ever to their work. With the tools and techniques they’ve acquired at the U of A and with the support of the Capote Fellowships, both plan to complete a collection of short stories before their graduation.

And each stresses that writing is no longer a vehicle of change or a need to entertain. They write because it is a function of their personalities.

"I think writing that is really well done can help people. But I don’t think that’s the point," said Kessler. "I write because I’m fascinated with words and language. I love the evolution of a story and to have a finished product that is somehow better, bigger and greater than I am."

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