The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has announced the recipients of its Creative Writing Fellowships for fiscal year 2017.
Each of the 37 writers chosen as NEA fellows will receive $25,000 grants to give them, according to the NEA, "the time and space to create, revise, conduct research, and connect with readers." The writers were chosen from more than 1,800 applications. Fellowships alternate between poetry and prose each year; 2017's class of fellows are all poets.
“The NEA has an excellent record of supporting writers who have gone on to have impressive literary careers,” NEA director of literature Amy Stolls said in a statement. “With their talent and diverse backgrounds, this year’s Creative Writing Fellows will add to our country’s rich literary history.”
The 2017 NEA fellowship class includes "almost an even number of men and women who hail from 19 states around the country," the endowment says.
The announcement was part of the NEA’s first major grant announcement for FY 2017, which also included grants to nonprofit organizations for literary publishing projects, including an $80,000 grant to Archipelago Books to "support the translation, publication, and promotion of international literature," and a $20,000 grant to the Kenyon Review to support the publication and promotion of both the journal and its online presence.
