FELLOWSHIP WINNERS
ANNOUNCED: The recipients of
the 2007 WAC creative
writing fellowships in
poetry are Jane Wohl,
Sheridan; Myra L. Peak,
Green River; and Jeffe
Kennedy, Laramie. Honorable
mentions go to Pat Frolander,
Sundance; and Chavawn
Kelley, Laramie. Rosemary
Daniell, poet and memoirist
from Savannah, Georgia, was
the judge for this year’s
competition. All fellowship
applicants are invited to
register for Rosemary’s
“Zona Rosa” workshop set
for Saturday, Oct. 21, 9
a.m.-noon, during the
Equality State Book
Festival/Casper College
Literary Conference in
Casper. Fee is $40 for
non-students, $20 for
students.
Here are details about the
fellowship winners and
honorable mentions:
Jane Elkington Wohl’s
winning entry was entitled
“Iraq Poems.” Her first
book, "Beasts in Snow," came
out last year, and it was
named this week as the
winner of the "Willa Award"
(named after Nebraska’s
Willa Cather) from Women
Writing the West. The book
recently received a glowing
review in the May/June
Utne Reader. Jane lives
in Sheridan and was
co-founder of the Young
Writers Camp near Story, a
week-long summer writing
retreat for teens. She's
entered WAC writing
competitions for many years
and this is her first award.
Myra L. Peak of Green River
entered “Hold the Love of
Coal.” She came to Wyoming
as a coal mine foreman and
now is writing a novel about
the experience. She's
published her poetry in
High Plains Register,
Owen Wister Review,
and Peralta Press. She won a
2004 WAC Frank Nelson
Doubleday Writing Award for
women writers and first
place in “free verse poetry”
in the 2006 Wyoming Writers,
Inc., competition. When not
writing, she runs an
environmental consulting
firm.
Jeffe Kennedy of Laramie
submitted a group of poems
entitled “Grooming Lessons.”
She won a 2005 WAC Doubleday
award and is a roster artist
for the Wyoming Arts
Council. Her first book, a
collection of essays
entitled
Wyoming Trucks,
True Love, and the Weather
Channel was published
by University of New Mexico
Press in 2004. She says in
her bio that this was her
"first attempt at poetry
since her days of teenage
angst."
Pat Frolander’s honorable
mention entry was “Married
Into It.” The Sundance
resident describes herself
as "a woman who has the best
of all worlds: a
great-grandmother, rancher,
writer, teacher, and wife."
She's a member of one of the
most active writing groups
in the state,
Bearlodge Writers. Group
members recently published
their first anthology.
Chavawn Kelley of Laramie
submitted “Estrella, Extrano”
(“Star, Stranger”). She has
won both a Doubleday Award
and a creative writing
fellowship from the Wyoming
Arts Council. One of her
poems was published in the
2006 issue of
Owen
Wister Review.
Judge Rosemary Daniell said
this: “Reading the poems has
been a near-painful pleasure
-- there are so many good
ones, and so many of them
moved me immensely! What a
repository of talent you
have in Wyoming!"
“One interesting aspect was
that all the winners, and
one of the honorable
mentions, had titled their
collections, which leads me
to think that these are
serious poets who have
book-length works. I know I
always think in terms of a
book-length collection,
rather than in terms of
individual poems, or groups
of individual poems, and
I've noticed among my
students that this often a
sign of seriousness of
purpose.”
Each year, the
Wyoming Arts Council
awards up to three $3,000
fellowships to the most
exciting new writing by
Wyoming residents. The
winners also receive a $500
stipend for traveling to the
Equality State Book
Festival/Casper College
Literary Conference to read
their work with the judge.
Please attend this year’s
reading on Friday, Oct. 20,
1-2:45 p.m. at the United
Methodist Church in downtown
Casper. It’s free and open
to the public.
Pearl
published in
Aeon Magazine