Four University of Arkansas Alumni Win Prestigious $25,000 Fellowships
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Of the 42 creative writing fellowships of $25,000 the National Endowment for the Arts awarded in 2009 to poets across the United States, four were given to alumni of the University of Arkansas Creative Writing Program: Chelsea Rathburn, Bill Notter, Thom Satterlee and Charles Rafferty.
He is currently working on two collections of poems. One, American Catena, is a set of poems for each state in the union and Washington, D.C. Another untitled group is a collection of fables and monologues.
“My time at Arkansas was fantastic,” said Rafferty. “It gave me the one thing that turned out to be essential — time to sit around and write, and to read all sorts of writers I might never encounter had I landed someplace else. Jim Whitehead was a huge force, of course. I came to Arkansas despising formal poetry, and I left wanting to write in nothing but form.”
Davis McCombs, director of the creative writing program in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, said, “Since practically every poet in the country applies for an NEA grant, I think it’s pretty extraordinary that four of our alumni would win in the same year. We’re really pleased — and proud.”
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the National Endowment for the Arts is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities and military bases.
To read poems by the winners, go to http://fulbright.uark.edu/headlines/poems.html
Contacts
Lynn Fisher, communications director
J.WilliamFulbright College of Arts and Sciences
479-575-7272, lfisher@uark.edu
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