11/17/11
SLU Professor Awarded Grant By National Endowment For The Arts
CANTON - St. Lawrence University Associate Professor of English Pedro Ponce has been awarded a Creative Fellowship in Prose by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The award, for $25,000, is one of only 40 granted, from a field of 1,179 applications.
Designed to give writers the time and freedom to pursue their work, the creative writing fellowships went to writers in 20 states and the District of Columbia.
Ponce's fiction has been published widely and he has won numerous awards for his writing. A graduate of Williams College, he holds an M.A. from The Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars and an M.F.A. from Western Michigan University. He teaches courses in fiction writing and 20th-Century American literature and his research interests include narrative theory and theories of genre.
In March 2011, the NEA received 1,686 eligible applications, requesting more than $84 million in funding. A press release from the NEA states, "The resulting funding rate of 49 percent of eligible applications reflects both the significant demand for support and the ongoing vitality of the not-for-profit arts community despite current financial challenges. The competition for the fellowships is even more acute with 1,179 applications received. Art Works grants and the creative writing fellowships are awarded based on the applications received by the NEA and how those applications are assessed by the review panels."
A total of 863 grants to organizations and individual writers across the country were awarded, totaling $22.543 million, encompassing 15 artistic disciplines and fields, and supporting projects in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector.
