I recently received the thrilling news that I was one of six women selected for a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. The others are Krista Bremer, Vievee Francis, Janice N. Harrington, Helen Phillips, and Heidy Steidlmayer. The Foundation, established by Rona Jaffe in 1995, selects six emerging women writers annually, awarding them each $25,000. Find out more about the other recipients.
I will use the grant to take a quarter-long sabbatical this fall and to reduce my teaching load for part of 2010 while I complete my first novel. I will be attending the award ceremony on September 24, 2009, in New York and will give a reading at NYU’s Lillian Vernon Creative Writing House the following evening with the other grant recipients.
For information about the reading, check out NYU’S reading series schedule. If you’re in or near NYC, please come by for the reading!