Wyoming Arts Council

Announcing the 2017 Creative Writing Fellowship Recipients


The Wyoming Arts Council is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s creative writing fellowships. They each will receive a $3,000 award plus a travel stipend to read their work at one of Wyoming’s statewide literary conferences. Categories in 2017 include Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, and Fiction, for a total of three fellowships. And the winners are:

stephen-lottridge

Creative Nonfiction Winner: Stephen S. Lottridge of Jackson, WY
Stephen is a former professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and a retired clinical psychologist.  Educated on the coasts, he was raised in the mountain and sage brush west.   He has lived in Wyoming for the last twenty eight years, first in Rock Springs and now in Jackson.  He is the father of three grown, adopted children.  He has served on the Wyoming Humanities Council and the Wyoming Psychology Board.  He is an actor and director in local theater, leads book discussion groups and rides his bicycle.  He currently focuses on writing creative non-fiction, poetry and plays.

connie-wieneke_headshotPoetry Winner: Connie Wieneke of  Wilson, WY
Connie moved to Wyoming in 1983. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana in 1991. Her fiction, nonfiction and poetry have appeared in Stand, Creative Nonfiction, Whiskey Island Magazine, Owen Wister Review, Cutbank, and others, as well as on-line in Silver Birch Press, Open Window Review and Clerestory Poetry Journal. In 1996, American & World Geographic published Jackson Hole: Crossroads of the West. Previously, she received a WAC fellowship for creative nonfiction for an essay that has been reprinted in two anthologies. Her work is forthcoming in The Artists Field Guide To Greater Yellowstone (Torrey House Press) and in Blood, Water, Wind, and Stone (Sastrugi Press). Currently, she is working on a collection of poems about her family in both the social context and the landscape of the West. To keep her in the writing life, she works as a bookkeeper, as the assistant director of Jackson Hole Writers, and practices yoga and meditation. She lives in Wilson with her husband Rich, nine chickens and an ancient frog.

michael_sudmeier_headshot_by_kyler_deutmeyer

Fiction Winner: Michael Sudmeier of Wilson, WY
Michael lives with his wife and young son in Wilson, Wyoming. Prior to working as a freelance writer, he biked across the country a few times, guided and directed outdoor education backpacking trips, and taught high school English on the Zuni Reservation. He is currently working on his first novel.

The winners will be recognized at the Casper College and ARTCORE Literary Conference Friday morning, Sept. 23 at 8:30 am. Poetry Fellowship Winner Connie Wieneke will be on hand to provide a reading. The event is free and open to the public. Full event details are available at caspercollege.edu/events/literary-conference.

Honorable mentions in this year’s contest include Claudia Mauro of Jackson and Leah Shlacter of Jackson for Poetry, Valerie Pexton of Laramie and Tim Sandlin of Jackson for Fiction, and Diane Panozzo of Tie Siding for Creative Nonfiction.

For more information on this program, contact Rachel Clifton at (307) 777-5305 or rachel.clifton@wyo.gov.


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