Creative Writing Fellowships

Creative Writing Fellowships

Creative Writing fellowships are $3,000 unrestricted awards of merit, based on a writer’s body of work, and honoring Wyoming’s literary artists whose work reflects serious and exceptional writing. One fellowship is awarded in each category of Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, and Fiction, for a total of three fellowships. Applications are juried by noted authors, literary agents, or writing professionals from outside the state. Jurors may award honorable mentions. Recipients of the Creative Writing fellowships share their work at one of the three Wyoming literary conferences. The Wyoming Arts Council is now accepting applications for the Creative Writing Fellowships.

2022 Creative Writing Fellowship Recipients

Lori Howe | Laramie, WY | Poetry

Lori Howe is the co-creator of the new poetic form, the cadralor. She is also the author of Cloudshade: Poems of the High Plains (Sastrugi Press, 2015) and Voices at Twilight (Sastrugi Press, 2016), as well as the executive editor of Blood, Water, Wind, and Stone: An Anthology of Wyoming Writers (Sastrugi Press, 2016). Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in such journals as The Meadow, Clerestory, The Tampa Review, Red Hook, Verse-Virtual, McQueen’s Quinterly, and Pilgrimage. She is a poetry editor with Sastrugi Press, as well as a phenomenologist whose peer-reviewed research appears in The Journal of Poetry Therapy, Qualitative Inquiry, and others. She holds a Ph.D. in Literacy Education and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing/Poetry from the University of Wyoming, where she is an Assistant Instructional Professor in the Honors College. She is the Editor in Chief of Gleam: Journal of the Cadralor and of Clerestory: Poems of the Mountain West. She is currently at work on the cadralor collection, Ocean, Ocean. She lives in Laramie, Wyoming with a feral cat called Miss Kitty Pants. 

Notes on the Cadralor: 

How it all began:When I encountered what I thought was an intriguing poem by the poet, Christopher Cadra, I was taken aback by his five, short stanzas, apparently unconnected, that came together alchemically in the fifth stanza. I was so moved that I sent him a message, and the cadralor was born of this fortunate and unexpected connection. Christopher Cadra had not intended that work to be read as one poem, but rather as a series of five unrelated poems; nevertheless, the chemical reaction that produced the cadralor came directly from his compelling work. I was fascinated and drawn in by the idea of five unrelated stanzas that could each stand alone as whole poems, sparked into a fullness of self by the fifth stanza to become a whole poem connected almost invisibly by a shining or gleaming thread that becomes apparently only after one has read the entire poem. The cadralor is a “love poem,” and by this we mean that the gleaming thread illuminated by the fifth stanza answers the compelling question: “for what do you yearn?” This poetic form entrances me; it feels like a second skin. It is a thrilling experience to write a cadralor, and the more risk the poet takes, the more unconnected the stanzas are, the more electrifying the resulting poem. 

Call for Submission: Along with my fellow editors, I invite you to explore the cadralor and the first two issues of Gleam, our flagship journal, at gleampoets.org, where you’ll also find the rules of the form and submissions guidelines. The call for submissions for Issue 3 is open until July 31. We would love to read your work. 

Taylor Gordon | Laramie, WY |

Taylor Gordon is a fiction writer who received her MFA from the University of Wyoming, where she currently teaches creative writing. She tells stories that explore themes of domestic fabulism as well as generational trauma and the power dynamics of interpersonal relationships.

Her work appeared recently in Fairlight Shorts, and she is editing her first novel.

Tina Welling | Jackson, WY | Creative Nonfiction

Tina Welling is the author of Writing Wild, Forming a Creative Partnership with Nature, published by New World Library.  Her three novels are published by Penguin Random House. Welling’s essays have been published in The New York Times and other national magazines, as well as seven anthologies. She conducts creative writing and journaling workshops, is a faculty member of the Jackson Hole Writers Conference, and a Creative Energy Coach. Welling resides in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  She can be contacted through her website: www.tinawelling.com

 

An honorable mention was awarded to Rod Miller of Cheyenne in the poetry category.

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Neltje Blanchan and Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Writing Awards 

The Frank Nelson Doubleday Award of $1,000 is given for the best poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or script written by a woman writer. The Neltje Blanchan Memorial Writing Award, $1,000, is given annually for the best poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or script which is informed by a relationship with the natural world. Both awards are designed to bring attention to writers in Wyoming who have not yet received wide recognition for their work, and to support emerging writers at crucial times in their careers. Applications are currently closed. Check back in January 2022 for the next cycle.

2021 Recipients

Stefani Farris | Doubleday Memorial Writing Award

Stefani Farris’s manuscript of short stories, Grown Children, was a finalist for the Iowa Award for Short Fiction and a two-time semifinalist for The Journal’s Non/Fiction Prize. Stefani has been a resident of the Ucross Foundation (2018, 2008) and the Island Institute in Sitka, Alaska (2005). Her work appears in Gray’s Sporting Journal, the Colorado Review, Zyzzyva, Epiphany, Passages North, and elsewhere. Stefani holds an MFA in fiction from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University in Spokane, and she studied creative writing as an undergraduate at the University of Wyoming. She is also the grateful past recipient of two Wyoming Arts Council literature fellowships (2000, 2011). She lives with her family in Lander, where she works for the Equality State Policy Center and is finishing a novel.

Dakota Richardson | Blanchan Memorial Writing Award

Dakota grew up in the woods of Connecticut and spent much of his time running small boats across the surrounding seascapes of New England. He began working as a salt water fishing guide during the summer months, while attending school in the Berkshire Mountains and then in Manhattan at New York University. After graduating, Dakota packed up his truck and moved to Jackson, Wyoming. There he began work as a fly fishing guide on the Snake River and as a snowmobile guide during the winter. The backcountry of Wyoming has informed all aspects of Dakota’s life; as a fisherman, hunter, and outdoorsman. Dakota finds no better perfection than that of the open land and wild forests through which he can float, climb, ride, and revere.

2021 Pattie Layser Greater Yellowstone Creative Writing and Journalism Fellowship

The Wyoming Arts Council, with generous funding from The Pattie and Earle Layser Memorial Fund announces the Pattie Layser Greater Yellowstone Creative Writing and Journalism Fellowship. Open to writers and journalists, this fellowship seeks to intersect science, education, current events, and conservation to effectively communicate the Greater Yellowstone’s natural history and singular importance to society through creative and exceptional writing and subject communication.

This annual prestigious fellowship of $3,500 will be awarded to a creative writer (poetry, fiction, nonfiction), or those in the field of journalism (writer, photojournalist, videographer, documentary filmmaker, online or print media) who demonstrate serious inquiry and dedication to the Greater Yellowstone region through their work. Established and recognized authors are being sought, but emerging and mid-career writers are also encouraged to apply. Applications are currently closed. Check back in January 2022 for the next cycle.

2021 Fellowship Recipient

Hannah Habermann

Hannah Habermann is a writer, educator and activist focused on the social and environmental conflicts playing out in a rapidly-changing American West. She is honored to receive the Pattie Layser Fellowship and is looking forward to using the grant to explore stories focused on a just energy transition and Indigenous conservation efforts in Wyoming.

She is the co-creator and producer of the podcast Yonder Lies: Unpacking the Myths of Jackson Hole, a collaboration with KHOL 89.1, the Jackson Hole Historical Society, and the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative. Yonder Lies has explored issues of wildlife management, social justice, and the housing crisis in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Hannah is currently the Community Outreach and Communications Manager for the Jackson Hole Climate Action Collective, and also works as a climbing and hiking instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School. In 2020, Hannah was the communications manager for the historic Grey Bull for Congress campaign. She has written for the Jackson Hole News & Guide and holds a degree in Environmental Studies and Creative Writing from Middlebury College.

Previous Layser Fellowship Recipients

 

List of Previous Creative Writing Fellowship Recipients