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ANNOUNCING THE RONA JAFFE FOUNDATION GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP IN CREATIVE WRITING
The Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers and The Rona Jaffe Foundation are pleased to announce The Rona Jaffe Foundation Graduate Fellowship in Creative Writing. The fellowship will cover two consecutive semesters’ tuition and the fees for two residencies, plus a generous stipend to cover books, travel to residencies, child care, or loss of income while attending each residency.
The Rona Jaffe Foundation will award one fellowship annually to an incoming female creative writing student in poetry or fiction. The Rona Jaffe Fellow will be chosen by the MFA Admissions committee in consultation with the Director. The decision will be based on the quality of the application manuscript, essays, and recommendations.
“We’re thrilled to be able to offer an incoming student this remarkably generous support from the Rona Jaffe Foundation,” says Debra Allbery, Director of the MFA program, “Our low-residency MFA attracts ‘emerging’ writers of all ages, from a wide variety of backgrounds; this fellowship recognizes the full range of costs involved in pursuing this degree. We’re honored to be the first low-residency MFA program to receive this funding.” The Foundation has also established graduate fellowships for women writers in Ms. Jaffe's honor at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the graduate Creative Writing MFA Program at New York University.
“The Rona Jaffe Foundation is very pleased to support a first-year, female graduate student at Warren Wilson College,” said Beth McCabe, Foundation Trustee and Director of the Writers’ Awards program. “Our collaboration seems like a natural fit. For over fifteen years, the Foundation has supported emergent women writers through its Writers’ Awards program. More recently, it has established fellowships with several distinguished graduate programs and artist colonies to further its mission.”
McCabe adds, “Many of Warren Wilson’s students come to the low-residency program because it allows them the opportunity to pursue their MFAs without uprooting their lives. For some writers this is key for returning to school. In particular, many women writers have to juggle the multiple responsibilities of work and motherhood while struggling to sustain their writing careers. We are pleased to be able to help some of the most talented among them pursue their creative goals by supporting their graduate study in creative writing at Warren Wilson.”
The first Rona Jaffe Foundation Fellowship will be awarded in March 2011 for a student entering the Warren Wilson MFA program in July of that year. Guidelines appear below.
The Rona Jaffe Foundation recognizes that women writers make special contributions to our culture and, through its Writers’ Awards program and sponsored fellowships, tries to address the difficulties that some of the most talented among them have in finding time to write and gaining recognition. Celebrated author Rona Jaffe (1931-2005 ) established The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Awards program in 1995. It is the only national literary awards program of its kind dedicated to supporting women writers exclusively. Since the program began, the Foundation has awarded more than $1 million to emergent women writers. For more information about The Rona Jaffe Foundation, please visit their website, at http://www.ronajaffefoundation.org.
The guidelines for the fellowship are as follows:
- The Rona Jaffe Foundation will award one fellowship annually to an incoming female creative writing student in fiction or poetry.
- The student must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident of the U.S., and must have demonstrated financial need via the FAFSA, submitted by the appropriate deadline.
- The Rona Jaffe Foundation Fellow will be chosen by the MFA Admissions Committee, in consultation with the Director. The decision will be based on the quality of the application manuscript, essays, and recommendations. There is no additional application process for the fellowship, nor is previous publication required.
- The fellowship may be awarded in fiction or poetry at the discretion of the selection committee.
- The fellowship is not renewable.
- Admitted students will be considered as fellowship candidates only at the time of application to the Program. This opportunity cannot be deferred or repeated.
- Recipients will not be eligible for MFA grants during their tenure in the Program.
MFA DIRECTOR DEBRA ALLBERY AWARDED THE 2010 GRUB STREET NATIONAL BOOK PRIZE
Congratulations to MFA Director , Debra Allbery, winner of the 2010 Grub Street National Book Prize in Poetry for her forthcoming release, Fimbul-Winter, which will be published by Four Way Books in October of 2010. Final judge Jill McDonough praised the books "intelligence and empathy, ambition and appetite."
The Grub Street Book Prize is awarded in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction annually to a writer outside New England publishing his or her second, third, fourth (or beyond...) book. Each winner receives a $1000 honorarium and a reading/book party at Grub Street's event space in downtown Boston. Debra will visit Grub Street in January 2011 for a reading, dinner reception, and to lead a class for members.
2010-11 BEEBE FELLOW
The Warren Wilson College Undergraduate Writing Program is pleased to announce the selection of Rose McLarney as the Joan Beebe Teaching Fellow for the 2010-2011 academic year. Rose, who graduated in poetry in 2009 from the MFA Program will become the thirteenth Beebe Fellow. While the fellowship annually brings an MFA graduate back to the Swannanoa campus to teach a variety of courses in the undergraduate curriculum, Rose also returns to Warren Wilson as another alma mater, having earned her B.A. here in 2003. We look forward to her contributions to the writing life of the College.
HOLDEN MINORITY ENDOWMENT
Friends of Writers is pleased to announce the achievment of a long sought goal: the establishment of the Endowment for the Holden Minority Scholarship to the MFA Program For Writers at Warren Wilson College, which assures the Scholarship's permanent existence. FIrst awarded in 1995, and since awarded to twelve outstanding minority writers, the scholarship has been sustained, and is now endowed, through donations to Friends of Writers--a non-profit organization established and supported by faculty and alumni of Warren Wilson's MFA Program, the first and premier low residency graduate writers' program in the U.S.
Commitment to the challenge of making the Program more representative of the ethnic and cultural diversity of America led to the establishment of the Holden Scholarship, which has helped build that diversity while bringing to the Program students of extraordinary talent, some of whom could not otherwise have afforded graduate work.
The Holden Scholars to date have been African-American, Asian-Americaan, and Hispanic. In chronological order, they are: Fred Arroyo, A. Van Jordan, Ven Begamudre, Rodney Jack, Vyvyane Loh, George Higgins, Victoria Chang, Bora Reed, Natalie Baszile, Krystn Lee, Chloe Martinez, and Reginald Dwayne Betts. These Holden recipients are currently enriching American literature having published seven novels, six books of poetry, a memoir, and edited two anthologies representing cross-cultural writers, as well as amassing a number of prestigious national awards and fellowships.
The scholarship was named for the late Dr. Reuben Holden, a revered President of Warren Wilson, who broght the MFA Program for Writers to the College and was its unfailing supporter. The Friends of Writers, deeply gratified to have not only met but exceeded the goal of $300,000 to establish the Holden Minority Scholarship Endowment, are extremely grateful to the generosity of the community of writers and their friends who have made this achievment possible.
Prospective students or donors who wish to enquire further about the Holden Scholarship or the MFA Program should visit www.friendsofwriters.org