English Professor Thomas Sleigh recently received a $20,000 Creative Writing Fellowship that will fund his living expenses while he finishes his poetry book, currently titled "The Work."
Sleigh was awarded the fellowship last month from the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts.
"My initial reaction was of disbelief. I was grateful, but I also knew that there were lots of other artists out there who were qualified," Sleigh said.
The New York Times Book Review chose Sleigh's last book, "Waking," as one of the 10 best books of poetry of 1990-1991. The expenses involved in completing that book were partially funded by a fellowship he received from the NEA in1987.
Creative Writing Fellowships are awarded to help authors write, research, travel and advance their careers. They are awarded in four categories: poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction or translation. To be eligible for the fellowship, writers must have published a work in the genre for which they applied.
It is unusual for the same artist to receive two grants from the NEA, Sleigh said. After receiving one NEA fellowship, a person must wait five years before applying for another one and an artist may not earn more than three fellowships.
Sleigh has been at the College since 1986, but his book projects have restricted the number of classes he has taught. The two grants have allowed Sleigh to concentrate on his writing but have limited him to teaching one term this academic year. He said he will most likely work two terms next year.
But English Department Chair Louis Renza said students do not suffer when a professor leaves because of a book grant.
"When a creative writer who is a professor has the opportunity to take a grant, the department is able to provide visiting professors to instruct in classes that the professor would have taught," Renza said.
"We are all proud of the success Professor Sleigh has had," Renza said. "The prestige he has earned is good for the creative writing faculty, the English department and the College as a whole."
The entire process of filing an application with the NEA and receiving notification takes around 11 months, said Becky Gilbert, the secretary of the NEA's Literature Program. The NEA contacted Sleigh in Cape Cod last month and told him he had been awarded a second grant.
Last year Sleigh received a three-year Individual Writer's Award from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund.
Over the next three years, he will receive $105,000 to work on his writing, and will help conduct a series of workshops with the Oral History Center in Boston, Mass.
The workshop will bring young people together to exchange stories about the way in which violence has changed their communities and their lives.
