It's time again for the Wyoming Governor's Arts Awards

This time every year the Wyoming Arts Council hires me to write the story on the annual Governor's Arts Awards recipients. Some of them I know from my 25 years working at the Wyoming Arts Council. Others are new to me.

I have worked or met all the 2023 awardees:

Mary Jane Edwards, recently retired director of the Jentel Foundation

The Munsick Boys, a father and his three sons from Sheridan County finding inventive ways to thrive in the music world

Geoffrey O'Gara, filmmaker and author from Lander

Milward Simpson, a live theatre guy in Cheyenne who was my former boss at State Parks and Cultural Resources

Mike and Jane Sullivan, Mike as Wyoming governor 1987-1993, and Jane as First Lady 

A great list. I learned a lot interviewing them by phone. We didn't do the Zoom thing as I am much more phone-friendly than Zoom-friendly. My background is in journalism and feature writing. I have interviewed hundreds of people remotely and in person. I prefer face-to-face but it's not always possible. For this assignment, I needed a firm desk to take notes as my right hand is still not behaving properly due to ulnar nerve surgery. Thus, my handwriting is worse than it ever was -- and that's saying a lot. People have looked at my notebook and asked: "Is this your kind of shorthand?" I usually answer in the affirmative, labeling my method Shay Script which sounds better that terrible penmanship. 

There's another aspect to the story. The nuns taught me cursive. When I began roaming around to find stories, I recorded interviews in cursive. I couldn't read it when I got back to my desk. I switched to printing when I began reporting for my college newspaper. Instead of long swoops and swirls, I now could just abbreviate words with a few letters and be able to translate it at the other end.  I sometimes get confused but that is what phone and e-mail and Internet are for.

I learned a few things. Mike Sullivan is a James Joyce fan and tickled Bloomsday fans in Dublin reciting snippets from "Ulysses" while wearing cowboy duds. There is a thing called cowboy rap which I discovered interviewing musician Tris Munsick. He sent me to YouTube to see his brother Ian's performance at Cheyenne Frontier Days. Ian brought his buddy Ryan Charles on stage and he rapped cowboy and the fans down in the pit loved it. Mary Jane Edwards has retired twice, once as a UW faculty member, and once as executive director of the Jentel Foundation and its artist residency program. She now is officially retired, or so she says.

Those are just a few tidbits from the features you can read in the February edition of Artscapes Magazine. I am busily translating and transcribing my notes. Wish me luck.

You will hear from the recipients at the annual awards gala on Feb. 23 at Little America in Cheyenne. Order your tickets here.

Saturday Morning Round-up: Snow arrives -- finally -- and "Stay Close" keeps you guessing

Saturday Morning Round-up:

I’ve been interviewing the recipients of the 2021 Governor’s Arts Awards. These are the awards given annually by the Wyoming Arts Council for "substantial contributions made in Wyoming that exemplify a long-term commitment to the arts," Recipients include intriguing artists and very interesting people running arts organizations. Sometimes the person running the arts org is an artist, That artist continues to make art while promoting the arts in their community. It’s a time-consuming task, one that pays very little. But real people keep doing it. Read the articles in the next issue of WAC Artscapes. 

Just finished watching the eight-episode Netflix series “Stay Close” from the novel by Harlan Coben. Kept my attention through all the twists and turns. Surprise ending. The murderer is a character I didn’t suspect. The series is set in an English town surrounded by lots of water which figures into the plot in ways major and minor. Coben’s novel, as are most of his works (including scripts for the "Fargo" series) is set in the U.S. It’s a funny thing to watch a murder thriller transplanted to England. It’s almost as if we don’t expect people to die gruesome deaths in the land of Downton Abbey, stiff upper lips, and way too much tea-drinking. It’s also the home of Jack the Ripper, Sweeney Todd and inventive ways to torture and kill those who have ruffled the king’s feathers. Its staid demeanor helps make throat-slitting and gang-style executions stand out. Some inventive killing goes on in “Stay Close.” Keeps you guessing. Watch it.

Jan. 6 marked the anniversary of the 2021 Capitol Insurrection. While the Democrats in Congress, the president, and TV hosts made a big deal out of it, Republicans were nowhere to be seen except on Fox and some loony right-wing outlets. For those of us in the reality-based world, the attack on the Capitol was an attack on democracy. Repubs don’t see it that way. A few do. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney does. Her pops too. They were the only GOPers that attended the Congressional prayer service on Thursday. I know, Dick Cheney to war criminal standing up for what’s right? It was rich in irony seeing his masked face. But Rep. Cheney is one of two Republicans serving on the Jan. 6 Commission. She’s also blasted Wyoming GOP leadership as deluded radicals leading the party down a dangerous path. I’m no fan of the Cheneys. But when people do the right thing, you have to thank them.

We’re finally getting some snow. November was almost snowless but we started catching up with the season on Christmas Eve and the ground is covered as I write this. Ski areas that delayed opening are now chest-deep in the stuff. I am closer to most Colorado ski areas than I am to Wyoming's Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. But JHMR reports some incredible snow amounts on its blog this morning:

As of January 8, since New Year's Day, we have received 63"! We received 42" in the last 48 hours. As of this morning, we received 24" in 24 hours. Total snowfall is now 240" on the year.

Damn. Most Colorado ski areas have received half of that. For the record, Cheyenne at 6,200 feet elevation receives about 60 inches of snow in an average year. Last year was one of extremes when we received half our total in one March blizzard. If we received 240 inches of snow, we would be digging tunnels to our cars and those tunnels would be pointless because the city would be waiting for the sun to come out for the its primary snow removal tactic. And waiting.

Who's your favorite music teacher?

My two children had excellent music teachers in the Cheyenne schools. My daughter Annie was so smitten with music that she's now a vocal music major at Laramie County Community College. Justin Timberlake joined Grammy Foundation member Ryan Seacrest and of President/CEO Neil Portnow in announcing a new award for music teachers sponsored by the foundation. Earlier in the night. Here's the info:

GRAMMY Music Educator Award: In recognition of the significant role of teachers in shaping their students' musical experiences, the GRAMMY Foundation and The Recording Academy are partnering to present the first Music Educator Award. Open to current U.S. music teachers in grade kindergarten through college, the Music Educator Award will be given out during GRAMMY Week 2014. The nomination process opened Feb. 10 at www.grammymusicteacher.com. The deadline for submissions is April 15. See the awards announcement from last night's Grammies at http://www.grammy.com/news/neil-portnows-55th-grammy-awards-telecast-remarks. 

For all of my writer friends -- and me too: Everybody gets a trophy!

From the New York Times Sunday Book Review

Soldier-poet Brian Turner will talk about his work at Equality State Book Festival Sept. 14-15 in Casper

Brian Turner

Here's some exciting news. The Wyoming Arts Council announced yesterday that soldier-poet Brian Turner will serve as judge for its creative writing fellowships in poetry. Turner will travel to Casper Sept. 14-15 for the Equality State Book festival to read from his work with the three poetry fellowship winners. He also will participate on a panel with fellow Iraq War vet Luis Carlos Montalvan. He's a U.S. Army Iraq War veteran and author of "Until Tuesday: The Story of a Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him." Here's some info on Turner and his books:

He is a soldier-poet who is the author of two poetry collections, Phantom Noise (2010) and Here, Bullet (2005) which won the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award, the New York Times “Editor's Choice” selection, the 2006 Pen Center USA "Best in the West" award, and the 2007 Poets Prize, among others. Turner served seven years in the U.S. Army, including one year as an infantry team leader in Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Prior to that, he was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999-2000 with the 10th Mountain Division. Turner's poetry has been published in Poetry Daily, The Georgia Review, and other journals, and in the Voices in Wartime Anthology published in conjunction with the feature-length documentary film of the same name. Turner was also featured in Operation Homecoming, a unique documentary that explores the firsthand accounts of American servicemen and women through their own words. He earned an MFA from the University of Oregon and has lived abroad in South Korea. In 2009, Turner was selected as one of 50 United States Artists Fellows.
At the Casper College Literary Conference Sept. 14-15, 2012, Brian Turner will read from his work together with the fellowship winners. He also will participate on a panel about soldier-writers.
Here’s what critics had to say about Here, Bullet: 

 "In sharp, straightforward, yet lyrical language, Turner exposes the many costs of war.” — Library Journal 

“The day of the first moonwalk, my father's college literature professor told his class, ‘Someday they'll send a poet, and we'll find out what it's really like.’ Turner has sent back a dispatch from a place arguably more incomprehensible than the moon—the war in Iraq—and deserves our thanks...” — New York Times Book Review

Printed fellowship applications will be available next week on the WAC blog and web site.

The postmark deadline is June 8, 2012.For more information, contact Michael Shay, 307-777-5234 or mike.shay@wyo.gov, or visit the WAC web site at www.wyomingartscouncil.org.

Cheyenne native Daniel Junge wins Oscar for documentary "Saving Face"

"Saving Face" filmmakers Daniel Junge, left, and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy of Pakistan accept their Oscar for best documentary short at the 84th Annual Academy Awards tonight in L.A. Junge grew up in Cheyenne and now lives in Denver.

Shape-shifting in the arts world and in Yellowstone

The world of arts funding is changing dramatically. The federal-state-local government infrastructure that began with the establishment in 1965 of the National Endowment for the Arts is morphing into something new and different. And this may be a good thing.

I work in that infrastructure, in both the state and federal level, for 20 years. I am 60. My brain and my aesthetics should be as calcified as my knees. But as is the case with many of my colleagues in arts administration, I am being challenged to look at the arts with new eyes.

I mentioned “colleagues.” I have fewer of those these days as state arts agencies are killed off by Tea Party-inspired governors and state legislatures. The Kansas Arts Commission got the ax this year. South Dakota almost disappeared. Nevada and Arizona were cut to the bone.

This budget cutting frenzy is inspired by deficits and political ideology. Wyoming has a budget surplus but our arts agency has been told to cut spending – or else. Wyoming is as red as red can be. We’re selling the crap out of coal and shale oil and natural gas (some of which is actually ancient crap) and trona and wind -- and the gubment is raking in the dough through excise taxes. One can only assume that politics trumps reality.

One could get all bent out of shape about this state of affairs. [Pause for blood-curdling scream]  Or, maybe, I can put my energy into alternatives. Change is good, right? Didn’t a presidential candidate say that long time ago in a galaxy far far away?

I will spend time on these pages exploring arts organizations and funders and artists and writers who are looking at this world in new ways.

I came across a great one today. United States Artists has been around for several years. The help artists, writers and performers raise project funding online.

The artists first must pass muster as a recipient of an award from one of USA’s partnering organizations, such as Wyoming Arts Council, Idaho Arts Commission, Lannan Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, etc.

Artist Pearl C. Hsiung, L.A. needed to raise $5,200 for her multimedia project, “Yellow Stoner: Shape-shifting in Yellowstone National Park.” Under “perks,” Hsiung promised $50 donors that she would send e-mail updates of the project. For a $100 donations, you get e-mail updates and an actual postcard sent from YNP. Donors of $250 (limited to 20) receive e-mail updates, a postcard from YNP and a limited edition, signed and numbered, hand-pulled 9x12-inch “Yellow Stoner” screen print created for this fund-raiser. Those who donate $500 (limited to 10) get all of the above, thank you credits, and a signed DVD copy of the finished video piece. The high rollers -- $1,000 donors – get all of the above plus a party.

Hsiung ended up raising 107 percent of her goal. The money pays for travel costs and renting a camera. She plans to be in Yellowstone in late August. The light will be good and many of the tourists (but not all) will be gone.

I write at length about this project for several reasons: 1. It’s innovative and interesting; 2. It’s happening in Wyoming; 3. Hsiung had to earn her artist creds though a public or private arts org to qualify for USA Projects; 4. A number of micro-lending individuals thought enough of the project to fund it.

This latter point is important. True, a kitschy postcard sent from the Old Faithful Inn is a keepsake. But the philanthropists in the $250-and-up categories get something concrete for their money. Call it an investment. That poster or video may be worth something some day. Even the thank you creds on the DVD might lead to other projects and investments in the arts world. At least you get bragging rights when Pearl shows her video and you’re listed as a free-spending arts patron.

Diego: “Thanks for the commission, Mr. Rockefeller.”

Nelson: “You’re welcome. Now tear down that commie mural.”

You may be venturing into unknown country with arts patronage.

I digress. No matter what the future holds, Hsiung wins. Her project gets funding. More people know about her and her work (including this arts administrator in Cheyenne, WY). She’s learned some valuable marketing skills.

Go check out her project at http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/project/yellow_stoner_shape_shifting_in_yellowstone_national_park

And if you’re wandering around Yellowstone the next couple weeks and see a young artist and cameraperson surrounded by shape shifters, you’ll know who it is. Say hi. 

Gathering of writers and fellow travelers in Cheyenne

Last night the Wyoming Arts Council held its annual Governor’s Arts Awards event. A record crowd was on hand in the Little America ballroom in Cheyenne to celebrate the awardees and to hear Gov. Matt Mead’s first “State of the Arts” speech.  For more on that, go to Karen Cotton’s article in this morning’s Wyoming Tribune-Eagle at http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2011/02/12/news/19local_02-12-11.txt

It also was old home week for artists and arts supporters from around the state. This was especially true for writers because Nancy Curtis, proprietor of High Plains Press, was one of the awardees.  Nancy runs the press from her working ranch near Glendo. In the video that accompanied her award, Nancy is shown tending to her books and her cattle, not always in that order. She also showed off her and her husband Doug’s homestead, including the room where she grew up. I never knew that Nancy lived in the same house she grew up in. She showed off the old sign on the bedroom door that said “Nanci” in big letters. Underneath that was “Press.” Guess she always knew she was getting into the publishing biz.

Nancy has been a huge supporter of writers in Wyoming. This is through her press but also through her early work organizing the statewide organizations for writers – Wyoming Writers, Inc., and WyoPoets. Both organizations have annual gatherings that are energizing, informative and fun. WyoPoets will meet during the last weekend in April in Casper and WWInc will meet the first weekend in June, also in Casper. I’ve been a WWInc member for at least a decade and plan my summer schedule around the conference. I just volunteered to run the late-night open mike sessions which are a blast. Last year in Cody we heard some intriguing new voices, one of whom (Jayme Feary) won a Wyoming Arts Council creative writing award later that summer. Another newbie, Reid Rosenthal, just published the first in his “Threads West” series of historical westerns.  To see the line-up of presenters for this year’s conference, go to http://www.wyowriters.org/conference.html.

Last night, Nancy and Doug were surrounded by long-time friends from around the state. Among them were Pat Frolander, Gaydell Collier, Katie Smith and Jeanne Rogers from Sundance, Midge Farmer from Gillette, Barb Smith from Rock Springs, Wyoming Poet Laureate Emeritus Bob Roripaugh from Laramie, Linda Hasselstrom from Hermosa, S.D. (lived in Cheyenne for a decade), Page Lambert, a one-time Crook County resident and Bear Lodge Writers members who now lives in Colorado. I know there were more but you can’t see everybody at an event with 500 people.

I sat with my wife Chris and daughter Annie. Also Joy Thompson, who hired me at the Arts Council 20 years ago and was my first mentor in the world of arts administration. She now lives in Lakewood, a suburb of Denver, and hope we can visit again soon. One thing’s clear – it’s great to see old friends. I’ve lived in so many places during my six decades. I’ve met many people and had some good friends that I’ve let drift away.

We connect occasionally via e-mail and Facebook. But it’s a real treat when you get to sit down with someone and just talk. It may be a sign of age or a byproduct of our frenetic e-lives (or both). We all ache to spend time with family and friends and even colleagues. I find it strange that this shy and withdrawn kid now has a public life. Chris will tell you that one of my catch-phrases is “I hate the living.” Yes, it’s a movie quote, this one by the quirky woman coroner in “Men in Black.” I usually say it in relation to some talentless media star who materializes on the plasma TV screen. I’ll have to amend that to “I hate or at least strongly dislike some of the living.” That means you, Lindsay Lohan and Glenn Beck!  

UPLIFT presents Rodger McDaniel with public service award

Photos by Mindy Dahl

Wyoming Tribune-Eagle education reporter Josh Mitchell wrote about UPLIFT’s 20th anniversary celebration in Wednesday’s edition.

The celebration was held Tuesday evening in the Cole Elementary school gym. One of my fellow UPLIFT board members, Brenda Ducharme, teaches at the school.

UPLIFT, the Wyoming affiliate of Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, presented Rodger McDaniel (shown in lower left in photo with UPLIFT Director Peggy Nickell) with its public service award. McDaniel is the outgoing director of the Wyoming Department of Health’s Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Division. He will be missed.

I served with Rodger in the early 1990s on the first board of Laramie County Habitat for Humanity. I moved on to other volunteer roles and a few years later, Rodger and his family were in Nicaragua directing that country’s Habitat projects. He returned to his law practice, became an ordained minister and was eventually tapped by Gov. Dave Freudenthal for public service. His retirement was announced last week.

Rodger’s been crucial in bringing vision to a state that struggles with some rotten mental health and drug abuse statistics. Crisis centers – even in the Capital City – are few and far between, as are clinicians. The division’s Medicaid Waiver program for children and teens have helped pay for residential treatment and, even more importantly, aftercare when the child returns home.

Here’s hoping that Rodger and his colleagues have put us on a course that even 2010-style regressive politics can’t change. Wyoming’s new “Code of the West” may be fine for ropin’ and brandin’, but it doesn’t help curtail alarming teen suicide statistics and the state’s shortage of quality children's mental health treatment.

Josh interviewed me for the Nov. 17 story. My two cents worth:

Mike Shay is an UPLIFT board member and both of his children received help from the organization.

UPLIFT outreach coordinators attend school meetings with parents, Shay noted. The organization helps navigate parents through the complex system and connects families with different services, Shay added.

“UPLIFT”s been crucial in Wyoming,” Shay said.

I’d send you to the WTE site to read the rest, but it’s not on there.

As I've said here before, my son struggled with ADHD and my daughter has mental health issues. Both were helped by the incredible UPLIFT staff. We need these professionals to navigate school and government and treatment centers. They serve as guides to us confused, stressed-out parents.

You can find out more about UPLIFT at http://www.upliftwy.org/

Wyoming writers in High Plains Book Awards

Two very talented -- and wildly different -- writers from Wyoming have books as finalists for the High Plains Book Awards.

Samuel Western's book, A Random Census of Souls: Prose Poems (Daniel & Daniel Publishers), is one of three finalists in the poetry category for the awards. Sam lives in Sheridan and has won a creative writing fellowship from the Wyoming Arts Council.

Info about the book:

Prose poems built of strong narratives, keen descriptions, and lively characters Packed with vivid and meaningful detail, these gemlike prose poems bear witness to lives both static and changing, set in well-defined contemporary and historic scenes. The stories reveal real people and their troubles, joys, and desires. The writing is bold and full of social consequence, whether set in among Wyoming high prairie, New England hardscrabble farm, or the metropolis of Ancient Rome.

About the Author:

Samuel Western has served in the Swedish merchant marine and worked as a commercial fisherman, contract logger, longshoreman, and hunting guide. He is the author of the book Pushed Off the Mountain, Sold Down the River: Wyoming's Search for Its Soul, and he has published poems and pieces in The Economist, Wall Street Journal, LIFE, Sports Illustrated, High Country News, Northern Lights, and Owen Wister Review. He holds an MFA from the University of Virginia -- where he also taught English -- and is the recipient of a Wyoming Literary Fellowship. He lives and writes in Sheridan, Wyoming.

Robert Greer's novel Spoon is one of three finalists in the fiction category. Bob has a ranch outside of Wheatland. He may be the only African-American physician best-selling novelist rancher in Platte County. But that's just a guess. Here's some info from Bob's web site:

Make time for SPOON, an engrossing literary novel from Robert Greer about a half-black, half-Indian man searching for his roots. Arcus Witherspoon comes to work for the Darleys as a ranch hand, but he ends up becoming a friend and mentor to their son, T.J., and a resolute ally when a coal company begins to pressure the Darleys to sell. Set in Montana's ranch land, this is a story about family, identity, and as always for Robert Greer, about our land and way of life in the West. A moving, memorable, and suspenseful tale.

Read an interview with Robert here

Fine summer reading.

The Flobots to receive Mayor's Award for Excellence in the Arts

Congrats to The Flobots:

We’re honored to be receiving the Denver Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts on Wednesday, February 17. On the eve of a new album, the band will perform at the February 17 award ceremony.

It’s a big week for The Flobots. The Denver band has been selected as one of four recipients of the 2010 Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, an honor bestowed by Mayor John Hickenlooper and the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs. The Flobots share this honor with fellow recipients El Centro Su Teatro, Access Gallery and Jeffrey Nickelson, the late founder of Shadow Theater Company.

Flobots were selected on the strength of their artistic and commercial successes, including winning over audiences around the world with a bombastic and inspiring live show. Their major-label debut, Fight with Tools, sold more than 300,000 copies, and the hit song “Handlebars” was one of the biggest songs of 2008. The Mayor’s award also recognizes Flobots’ social activism and civic engagement, values that they promote from the stage and practice through their non-profit organization Flobots.org.

In a ceremony on February 17, Flobots will perform a track from their upcoming record Survival Story, which is due on Universal Records in mid-March. The album’s first single, “White Flag Warriors,” is now in rotation on radio stations around the country. The song features vocals by Tim Mcllrath of Rise Against. Long-time Flobots friend and collaborator Matt Morris also appears on the record.

Dems celebrate diversity at NTR banquet

Democrats will gather in Cheyenne on Saturday, Feb. 27, for the 2010 Nellie Tayloe Ross Banquet. Hear from Democratic Party leaders, the annual NTR Award winner, and special guest speakers to be named soon. Come rally with other Democrats as we celebrate diversity in politics during the Legislature's budget session.

Click here to register or to see more details. Festivities begin at 5:45 p.m. at the historic Plains Hotel in Cheyenne with a cocktail reception, followed by dinner at 7 p.m. Buy a table so you can sit with your friends, or come as you are and enjoy the evening with Democrats from every corner of Wyoming.

You can buy your tickets online at http://www.wyomingdemocrats.com/ or you can call WyoDems HQ at 1-800-SAY-DEMS to make reservations.

Fellowships aid writing communities

I was on the road in Nevada last week so didn't get to write any posts. I was working as a consultant to the Nevada Arts Council in Carson City. In the six weeks leading up to the trip, I read 42 creative writing manuscripts and had to decide which were the prize-winners and which were destined to finish out of the running. The NAC awards three creative writing fellowships of $5,000 each and three honorable mentions of $500 each. You'll have to await the NAC press release to discover this year's winning writers. But the fellowship panel process is an interesting one. I encourage writers to participate some time during their careers.

I know -- not all writers believe in these kinds of prizes. Elitist, they say, a chance to shower money on those boring academically trained writers who know how to work the system. Or it's just a way for poets to pick up a little cash to feed their habit. Others don't apply because they want a career in children's writing or want to write mysteries that show up in the best-seller charts. And who can blame them? They're shooting for places in the more lucrative and ultra-competitive world of commercial publishing.

In my role as literature specialist at the Wyoming Arts Council, I've seen a number of writers whose careers were jump-started by government-sponsored fellowships. Wyoming has two fine mystery writers -- C.J. Box and Craig Johnson -- who won fellowships before they were published. Box's game warden, Joe Pickett, and Craig Johnson's sheriff, Walt Longmire, are now almost as famous as they are. Page Lambert was a bank teller and a ranch wife before writing what were to become fellowship-winning manuscripts. She's now well-published and a leader of writing workshops around the country (and drat the fact -- she no longer lives in WYO). Mark Spragg's wonder novel, "An Unfinished Life," was transformed into a movie of the same time with some big stars. Tim Sandlin writes comic novels ("Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty") and comic scripts for the likes of Drew Barrymore. Until recently, Mark Jenkins wrote a fine column for Outside magazine. The Laramie-based international adventure writer now concentrates on book writing (he already has three to his credit).

Many fellowship winners, no matter what state they live in, will ever gain this type of status. Most writers never support themselves with their creative work. But their writing deserves recognition, so that's why I do this and why I believe in being part of the greater literary community. Sure, I get paid for being a consultant on my own time. But it's at about the level one would suspect when you work for a state agency that gets funding only after roads, medical care, and education.

When I worked for the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C., in the mid-nineties, I went to a reading and book signing by one of my favorite authors, John Calvin Batchelor ("The Further Adventures of Halley's Comet"). He read from his new novel and then signed books for the modest-sized crowd. I wondered why his darkly humorous work had never caught on. As he signed my book, I told him that I worked in the NEA's literature program. He paused, looked up, and then launched into a rant against the agency and how a bunch of monkeys locked in a basement could do a better job of granting fellowships. The NEA gave out $20,000 awards back then and still does.

I was taken aback. I mumbled something about the process being fair and balanced (that was before FOX News stole the term). He just snorted and shoved the book in my hands. I walked away, a bit pissed, somewhat shamed. The next day, I looked up Batchelor's name on the list of NEA awardees. It wasn't there. I've since found out that his objection was probably more ideological that personal.

Not everyone who deserves a fellowship gets one. But many do.