51³Ō¹Ļās Pierce sees talent honored with 2019 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship
Contact: Sasha Steinberg
STARKVILLE, Miss.āMississippi State Associate Professor of English Catherine Pierce is receiving a $25,000 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Considered among nearly 1,700 eligible applications, this yearās 35 Fellows were selected through a highly competitive, anonymous process and were judged solely on the artistic excellence of the work sample provided. Fellowships alternate between poetry and prose each year, and this yearās awards specifically support poetry.
āA recent national survey shows reading poetry is making a comeback,āĀ said Mary Anne Carter, NEA acting chairman. āThe National Endowment for the Arts supports our nationās poets and encourages a wide range of voices and styles.ā
The full list of NEA Creative Writing Fellowship recipients is available at .
A native of Delaware, Pierce also serves as co-director of 51³Ō¹Ļās creative writing program. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Susquehanna University, Master of Fine Arts from Ohio State University, and doctorate from the University of Missouri.
Pierce said the fellowship is a ātremendous honor,ā and she is grateful to the judges and NEA for this āreally wonderful affirmation of my work.ā
āI can already tell thatĀ Iām approaching my writing with new vigor and courage,ā she said. āThe fellowship also means more time and space in which to do that writingāto be able to devote more uninterrupted hours to that workĀ is an invaluable gift. Iām so excited to discover the new materialĀ that comes out of this opportunity.āĀ
First published in the spring 2017 issue of The Gettysburg Review, Pierceās poem āI Kept Getting Books About Birdsā was included in the 43rd edition of āThe Pushcart Prize: best of the Small Pressesā anthology series.
Pierce has authored three books of poetry. They include āThe Tornado Is the Worldā (Saturnalia 2016), winner of the 2017 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Prize and 2015 Sustainable Arts Foundation Award; āThe Girls of Peculiarā (Saturnalia 2012), winner of the 2013 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Prize; and āFamous Last Wordsā (Saturnalia 2008), winner of the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize.
Pierceās chapbook, āAnimals of Habit,ā was published in 2004 by Kent State University Press. Her poems also have appeared in The Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, Slate, Boston Review and The Cincinnati Review, among many other publications. For more, visit .
Learn more about 51³Ō¹Ļās College of Arts and Sciences and its Department of English at and .
51³Ō¹Ļ is Mississippiās leading university, available online at .