New Fellowships for Disabled Women Writers, Photographers, Playwrights and More!

Hi everyone!

I am finally back from California but my book tour is still raging ahead. If you want to find out when and where I will be reading from my (New York Times bestselling!) book, The Memory Palace, please visit my website: www.thememorypalace.com. In the meantime, whenever I get a second, I will continue posting as best I can. Here are some new deadlines for you!
Cheers,
Mirabee

(WRITERS) The Kenny Fries AROHO Retreat Fellowship—for a disabled woman writer to attend the 2011 AROHO (A Room of Her Own)Retreat in Abiqui, New Mexico this summer. More information about the Fellowship and the AROHO Retreat can we found at http://www.aroho.org/retreat_2011.php. Deadline is March 1!

(PLAYWRIGHTS) Clauder Competition for Excellence in Playwriting—The Clauder Competition for Excellence in Playwriting offers a biannual first prize of $2,500 and production for a full-length play by a young New England playwright. More info here: www.portlandstage.org. Deadline: March 1st, 2011!

(MEDIA ARTISTS) Finishing Fund Grants—FINISHING FUNDS provides media and new media artists with grants up to $2,500 to help complete diverse and innovative moving-image and sonic art projects. Eligible forms include single or multiple channel film and video, computer based moving-imagery and sound works, installations and performances, interactive works and works for new technologies, DVD, multimedia and the Web. We also support new media and interactive performance. Applicants must be residents of New York State; undergraduate students are not eligible. Announcement is made in early June. The program is supported in part by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts. Write to etc@experimentaltvcenter.org for details. Deadline: March 15th, 2011!

(PHOTOGRAPHERS & ARTISTS) OSU Post-MFA Fellowships—The Department of Art at Ohio State University is offering 2 Post-MFA Fellowships in 2011-12. One fellowship will be focused in Photography. Another fellowship is available and open to artists working in all mediums. These fellowships include an $18,000 stipend to support the individual while in residence at OSU. Additional remuneration is possible through adjunct teaching assignments, based on program need. 24-hour access to studio space, opportunities to collaborate with other centers, and borrowing privileges from the campus libraries. The fellowship concludes with exhibition and a public speaking presentation. More info: art.osu.edu. April 8th deadline.

(WRITERS) The ArtsEdge Residency Project—now accepting applications for the ARTSEDGE RESIDENCY PROJECT, a joint venture of the Kelly Writers House and Penn’s Facilities and Real Estate Services: http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/involved/awards/artsedge/. DEADLINE: April 29, 2011.

The ARTSEDGE PROJECT offers a one year residency for an emerging writer. The residency includes a subsidized apartment at 40th and Chestnut, (writer pays less than half the rent), studio/writing space in the AIR Space artistic nexus, and close affiliation with Penn’s writing communities.

During the course of the residency, the ArtsEdge writer will be encouraged to develop at least one project at the Writers House. Past residents have produced staged readings (http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/0109.php#22), organized panel discussions (http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/0310.php#25), performed readings at Writers House (http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/1110.php#2), and coordinated other projects. For more information, please write to: residencyproject@writing.upenn.edu

(ARTISTS) The WhyNot Place Residency Programme in New Delhi, India—Religare Art is happy to announce the continuation of The WhyNot Place Residency Programme for the year 2011. Applications for the programme are now available on their website: www.religareart.com

(ARTISTS) New Summer 2011 Rome Art Program—Scholarships available. For more info, write: info@romeartprogram.org or visit their website www.romeartprogram.org

(ALL) Vermont Studio Center—Founded by artists in 1984, the Vermont Studio Center is the largest international artists' and writers' Residency Program in the United States, hosting 50 visual artists and writers each month from across the country and around the world. The Studio Center provides 4-12 week studio residencies on an historic 30-building campus along the Gihon River in Johnson, Vermont, a village in the heart of the northern Green Mountains.

Vermont Studio Center awards a number of fellowships for 8-week residencies to international residents from specific countries through the generous support of the Freeman Foundation, the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation and the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation. Each residency award comes with round-trip air travel, travelers health insurance, an exhibition in the Red Mill Gallery, and other benefits depending on the award. To apply for a fellowship, please download an application and mail it in by April 1 with your supporting materials. Those artists not eligible for these awards are welcome to apply for Vermont Studio Center Fellowships at 2/15, 6/15 and 10/1. Please visit our website for more information.

18th Annual Freeman Fellowship Program for Asian Artists
Sponsored by the Freeman Foundation, ten fellowship awards for mid-career artists from China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Rubin Fellowships for Himalayan Artists
Sponsored by the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, two fellowship awards for mid-career artists from Bhutan, Mongolia, Nepal, Tibetan Ethnic (TAR/China), Tibetan Member of the Diaspora, who are engaging in or responding to traditional Himalayan art forms.

Robert Sterling Clark Fellowships for African Artists
Sponsored by the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, five fellowship awards for mid-career artists from all sovereign and non-sovereign dependent territories on the continent of Africa.

All of these fellowships can be found on their website: http://www.vermontstudiocenter.org

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR KENNY FRIES

Greetings all...so here as promised, a great new interview with author, poet and disability rights activist Kenny Fries. Kenny Fries is the author of The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin's Theory (Carroll and Graf, 2007), Body, Remember: A Memoir (Dutton, 1997; Plume paperback, 1998; new edition, University of Wisconsin Press, 2003) and editor of Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out (Plume, 1997). His books of poems include Desert Walking: Poems (The Advocado Press, 2000) and Anesthesia: Poems (The Advocado Press, 1996). He received a 2009 Creative Capital grant in Innovative Litearature, the 2007 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award, the Gregory Kolovakos Award, a Creative Arts Fellowship from the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission and the National Endowment, and was a Fulbright Scholar to Japan. He teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Goddard College.

Kenny, thanks so much for joining us today. Would you mind talking a little about a particular opportunity that came early in your career, and how it affected you and your work?

My first residency was at the Millay Colony for the Arts in 1988. I left a job to go away to Millay for a month to write and it is this experience that enabled me to understand my writing process and take my life as a writer more seriously. Since then, writing has been at the center of most, if not all, of my life decisions. Because of this, and because Ann-Ellen Lesser, the former director at Millay, was devoted to building a universally designed accessible building so all writers and artists could be in residence, the Millay Colony will always be a special place for me.

I remember when that building opened. I went to the tour with you! I was pretty excited to see an art colony create such an accessible site. I hope to go back someday. Anyway, besides Millay, you've stayed at so many residencies/art colonies over the years, Kenny. Would you mind telling us about one or two of your favorite places and why they were so important to you?

Besides Millay, the most important residency at an artist colony for me has been my times at The MacDowell Colony. I finished both of my nonfiction books, Body, Remember, and The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin's Theory at MacDowell. The other opportunity that singly changed the course of my life, was being a Creative Arts Fellow of the Japan/US Friendship Commission and the National Endowment of the Arts in 2002. My time in Japan led to lifelong friendships with Japanese colleagues, has influenced my work immensely and gave me a place I think of as a second home. I was glad to return to Japan as a Fulbright Scholar a few years later. I happened to meet Mike, my Canadian husband, who was teaching English in Japan at the time. So, that first grant to live and work in Japan changed the course of my life in that way, as well.

Since you are disabled and have been a resident at many artist colonies, you would know more than most which ones are the most accessible. What places do you think are particularly sensitive to the needs of disabled artists? How would you like to see art colonies change in the future, in terms of accessibility?

That's a difficult question to answer since every disability has its own issues, so I can only answer that question as it pertains to my disability, which also has created different issues at different times. Perhaps, the Millay Colony's universally designed building makes a stay at Millay easiest. However, over the years MacDowell has worked on becoming as accessible as possible and the staff is great about accessiblity. Yaddo has become more and more aware of access needs and will be putting in an elevator in a building that recently had a fire, so it will become even more accessible. Many artist colonies are in historic, old buildings, so making these places accessible to all takes leadership on the part of the different directors and Boards. But we must remember that because of the Americans with Disabilities Act, artist colonies must be accessible, so those with disabilities should ask for what they need and work with the places who just don't yet get it.

Any suggestions for my readers who are disabled or who need emergency funding due to sudden medical problems?

Emergency funds have helped me out a lot at various points in my career. If you truly need help due to an emergency, by all means apply. The PEN American Center has an emergency fund for writers and The Author's Guild has an interest-free loan emergency fund. All of these funds have different requirements. A while ago, I published an article in Poets and Writers that dealt with emergency funds and most of the places I talked about in the article are still helping out writers and artists with emergency needs. If you apply, be honest about why you need the funds and ask for what you need.

Kenny, would you mind telling us a little more about the NEA program you did in Japan?

The program is run through an NEA panel but is sponsored by the Japan/US Friendship Commission. Each year five artists from all genres (writers, choreographers, visual artists, filmmakers, etc.) are chosen to spend five months (it used to be six months!) in Japan. They provide an ample stipend, and even though you're mostly on your own, the staff in Japan are good at setting you up with contacts, etc. You need to have a specific project and a specific reason for being in Japan. Since my grant, I've been on the selection panels, and it is a highly competitive grant. But if you have a good project, a good track record, and a good reason for going to Japan, apply. Nothing to lose. I was quite surprised I received the grant, and as I said before, this grant was truly a life-changer in many ways. I'm still working on a project with a Japanese singer and composer, which I began when I was in Japan on this grant. Information can be found at www.jusfc.gov.

Thanks for that info. I'm sure some of my readers will want to check out that program. Anyway, I absolutely loved your last book, The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin's Theory. Please tell our readers what your book is about and also what you are working on right now.

The book tells both the story of how Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace forged the theory of natural selection, as well as the story of my specially-made orthopedic shoes, which I need to get around. The two stories come together as, over the course of the book, my shoes become a metaphor for adaptation and variation. The book took me eight years to write! I'm hoping my new book, Genkan: Entries into Japan, doesn't take that long! This book uses my extensive research in Japan, as well as my time in Japan, to look at how Japanese culture/society deals with difference and "otherness." Last January, I received a grant for innovative literature from the Creative Capital Foundation (www.creative-capital.org) to support work on this book. What a godsend!

Kenny, thanks so much for your time and for sharing some of your experiences. I wish you the best of luck on your next book and look forward to seeing you next time you're in the area. Let's meet for danishes in New York!

For more information on Kenny and his work, please visit his website at: http://www.kennyfries.com. And don't forget to check out his great books, which you can buy here, directly from Mira's List:

THANKS AND MORE TO COME

Hey everyone, thanks for such lovely and supportive comments on my last two postings! I was quite overwhelmed by your responses. I also appreciate the emails you sent too. For those of you who wrote to tell me that you also have a brain injury or some other invisible disability, I am starting a blog in the spring called The Memory Palace which will deal with not only my book, by the same name, but also with issues such as brain injury and the creative process, memory loss, neuroscience research, and creative strategies for disabled artists. Basically, it will be a blog that uses my book (due out from Free Press/Simon & Schuster in January 2011) as a springboard to discuss lots of things I bring up in my memoir. I will continue to maintain this blog, so don't worry!

In the meantime, I just wanted to say thanks and to let you know that I am on a crazy deadline this month (actually, pretty crazy deadlines here and there until the end of May but this one might be the worst one). I will do my best to post on a fairly regular basis but don't hate me if I am a bit slow at times! I have some new deadlines for you that I will most likely get to by this weekend, if not before. Some new residencies have started up and I'll check them out before I send you news about them.

I'll also get to a couple new questions people have asked me that are not listed in my FAQs (and here) so please be patient. Until then, best of all to you....Mirabee

P.S. BE A HORSE, NOT A TINY FEARFUL THING

P.S. You know, I also get some whiny letters too. And to those, I say: we all have a choice. We can choose to be victims and get really cynical and bitter about our disappointments, our illnesses, our losses and rejections in life. We can blame our friends, the government, grant foundations, literary magazines, art dealers, our mothers and fathers, our husbands and wives or our crying babies. Or we can be brave, emotionally present and creative. Do you want to be a small, snarling fearful creature or do you want to be a fierce and beautiful thoroughbred, who, for every obstacle placed in your path, jumps over it with intention and joy? Dudes, I'd choose the horse if I were you.

xoxox
m.

MAY YOU DREAM BIG DREAMS IN 2010

Dear Gentle Readers,

I just came back from my post box that I keep in the next town over. I don't go there very often as I only use it for Mira's List mail, which doesn't amount to much. To my surprise, I found some very beautiful and moving thank you letters and donations! I was incredibly touched. My favorite was a postcard with a picture of one of my readers with her beautiful child, along the sweetest note, thanking me for all I do. (You know who you are! Thank you!) That picture (and the other letters) made my day and reminded me once again why I do this—not to get compliments and money (although both of those are nice). It's about helping and inspiring others because others have helped and inspired me.

Some of you know that a few years back, ten to be exact, I was hit by a huge truck (a big-ass 18-wheeler) on the New York Thruway. I never fully recovered from my traumatic brain injury (TBI) (a Diffuse Axonal Injury, to be exact) but I would never be where I am today (published author, working artist and happy blogger!) without the help and encouragement from certain friends and arts foundations (in particular: The Volgelstein Foundation, The Author's League Fund, The Pollock Krasner Foundation, Pen American, and The Gottlieb Foundation.)

I remember writing one foundation, a year after I had received a $3000 emergency grant from them, to see if they would break their rule just this once and allow me to reapply for more financial aid. It took me about three days to write the terribly mis-spelled and poorly constructed letter due to cognitive deficits at the time (now it takes me about three hours—still a long time but better than three days!). I expected them to say no, sorry, those are our rules. Instead, within A WEEK I got a check for $4000 and a letter that simply said, "Let us know if we can be of any more help to you. Wishing you a speedy recovery."

Friends cooked for me, took me shopping and helped me re-organize my apartment so that it was easier to deal with. For example, I had to take all my art off the walls and cover up my bookshelves with a sheet because of sensory overload. I had to put signs on cabinets so I knew where things were. One friend put post-it warnings around the place so I wouldn't make mistakes, like putting my hand on the burner to see if it was hot (that was a common one!) or telling me to shut off my toaster oven and stove.

I am, and continue to feel grateful to those friends and institutions. Their presence reminded me that I was still me deep inside, even though I often couldn't find the proper words for things (aphasia) or said terribly inappropriate things in public (that would be frontal lobe damage, folks. Quite embarrassing, really.). Because of their support, I never viewed myself as a victim and still don't, even though I am one of millions, like those with Lupus, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Fibromyalgia, etc. who walk around with an invisible disability. We TBI-ers are always told "Well, you don't LOOK brain damaged" or "Oh, we all get that way after forty." But no one gets like this over night unless they get knocked upside the head. And you will see more and more people walking around with TBIs in the future, as many of our soldiers are coming back from Iraq and Afganistan with mild to severe head injuries.

Anyway, the people close to me who "get" my disability (if you met me, you'd never know), know that it takes me a long time to form sentences properly on the page, and that I can't do something intellectually taxing (like writing) AND do something else in the same day, like say, go out to coffee with a friend, take a chatty walk in the woods with a pal, or go food shopping (too much stimulation and sensory input). I must manage my time carefully so I don't get lost or press down on the accelerator instead of the break when at a stop light (NOT a good thing!). But regardless of how long it takes me to write, it is extremely important for me to do this blog. I wish this blog had been around when I had my accident. I would have used the links and gone straight to the posts about emergency funding. I would have even written me a thank you letter like one of the ones I got today. Those little notes sure go a long, long way, I tell you.

What I do every time I post is to imagine someone like me, ten years ago, someone who is a bit overwhelmed, a bit exhausted and confused but who is very driven to do her art. I imagine that person has talent and passion and will try her hardest to never give up. That person is not going to be devastated by rejection letters, by illness or disability and will, time and time again, persevere for one reason only: she has to make art, no matter what.

I do this for you, dear reader, but I also do it for myself. It empowers and delights me to know that I can help a few people find time, money and a peaceful space to create. Ten years ago, I never would have imagined doing that. So thank you for sticking with me since the beginning of this blog. I hope this relationship continues a very long time.

May you all dream big dreams in 2010 and may some of them, if not all, come true!
Yours,
Mirabee

ARTIST RESIDENCIES & FELLOWSHIPS: WINTER DEADLINES

I hope you all had a good week....here are a few deadlines in case you are in the mood for applying for something this coming month. January is a BIG month for application deadlines, for residencies as well as grants, so you might want to do some serious hunting on my blog. Below are only a few among many. If you are hankering to apply to the residency of your dreams, I highly suggest going to the residency links on my sidebar and do a search for specific places. Until next time....Have a Happy New Year! Yours, Mira

(ALL) Residency at I-Park, Connecticut: Residencies will be offered to national and international visual (including digital) artists, music composers, environmental artists, landscape and garden designers, creative writers and architects. Work samples are evaluated through a competitive, juried process. There is a $25 application fee. I-Park is introducing a modest food program for 2010 where most, though not all, of the food will be provided. The facility is otherwise offered at no cost to accepted artists. To defray the cost of travel, six $750 grants will be offered in 2010 to international artists whose work is held in particularly high regard by the grant committee. Deadline January 11, 2010. For additional project information: I-Park, 428 Hopyard Road, East Haddam CT 06423 OR 860-873-2468 OR http://www.i-park.org OR ipark@ureach.com

(ALL) Blue Sky Summer Collaborative Residencies: Collaborative Residencies in Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A. Because of the collaborative nature of Blue Sky Project, your project must have an open-ended structure, be achievable in eight weeks, and stay within a $1,000 budget (excluding final exhibition expenses) and must engage others in its articulation and production. Previous projects have included: sculptural sound installation, video installation, performance, musical composition, dance installation, 2D visual-art and photography, self-published magazines, and site-specific interventions. Contact: Benkendorf, Blue Sky Project, Box 10506, Dayton OH 45402 OR 937-732-5123 OR http://www.blueskydayton.org OR peter@blueskydayton.org. Deadline is January 23rd, 2010.

(ALL) Elsewhere Collaborative Residency: Elsewhere Collaborative, a living museum and experimental production environment in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina, USA is now accepting applications from artists of all genres for residencies in 2010. Elsewhere is set within a three-story former thrift store, boarding house, and warehouse containing one woman's enormous 58-year collection of American surplus, thrift, and antiques. Elsewhere residencies invites experimental creators to join their collaborating community in utilizing this immense collection of objects. Artists live and work within interactive installations that provide evolving frameworks for investigating collaborations, community structures, and creative processes. Residency fellowship funding for travel, room and board, is available in exchange for hosting an educational workshop during the residency. Deadlines are rolling every other month; the deadline for fellowships is January 31 2010. Read more and download a brochure at http://elsewhereelsewhere.org/programs/residencies.

(ARTISTS & WRITERS) Craig H. Neilsen Foundation Residency Fellowships: The Vermont Studio Center is offering fellowships for artists and writers who live with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), Spinal Cord Disease (SCD) or who use a wheelchair and/or have a spinal cord injury. Deadline is February 15, 2010. The Vermont Studio Center has been dedicated to supporting a multidisciplinary community of contemporary painters, printmakers, sculptors and writers for 25 years; and offers more than 50 mid-career and emerging artists and writers per month distraction-free working time and space and the inspiration of distinguished mentors. These fellowships provide a 4-week VSC residency at the Studio Center, including uninterrupted studio time, accessible accommodations and a supportive community of international peers and mentors. Please visit the website for more information: http://www.vermontstudiocenter.org.

(WRITERS) The James Merrill House Writer-in-Residence Program: Writers can apply to live and work in James Merrill's Stonington, Connecticut, rent-free for five or eleven month terms. A stipend is provided as well. Application deadline is January 15, 2010. Please visit the website for more info: www.jamesmerrillhouse.org.

(WRITERS) University of Arizona Poetry Center Residency: Each summer, the University of Arizona Poetry Center in Tucson offers a month-long residency, including a stipend of $500, to a poet, fiction writer, or creative nonfiction writer who has published no more than one full-length book. This year's residency is for prose writers. Residents are provided with housing. Deadline is February 26. For more information, go to: www.poetrycenter.arizona.edu.