2003 December 3, 2003: 2004 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship Surprising phone call from Amy Stolls at the NEA, who was very nice and convinced me that, no, she hadn’t made a mistake or read from the wrong list. Judges included Ron Carlson, Bob Schacochis, Brett Lott, Diana Abu-Jaber, Tony Doerr, Kwadwo Agymah Ka, Nora Okja Keller, Valerie Miner, Janet Peery, Ted Wojtasik, and Mark Richard. Two old classmates of mine from Iowa, Dao Strom and Julie Orringer, also won fellowships, which was cool. You should buy their books. Dao’s is Grass Roof, Tin Roof (Mariner, 2003); Julie’s is a collection of stories, How to Breathe Underwater (Knopf, 2003). I submitted the first part of In the Shadows of the Sun in the application.

November 10, 2003: 2004 Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project Screenwriting Fellowship Ed Rugoff at the Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project wrote to offer a fellowship. I get to spend one year in Los Angeles working on two screenplays under the mentorship of a professional screenwriter and Paramount Pictures studio executive. Looks like it will be a lot of fun, plus I can get tan and work on my tennis game while everyone in New Hampshire gets colder and paler. I’m thinking there hasn’t been a good zombie movie in a long time. 2004 NEWS 2005 NEWS