Southeastern poet wins NEA Arts Fellowship, Akron Poetry Prize
Contact: Constance Woods
11/13/06
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University English instructor and poet Alison Pelegrin has been awarded a $20,000 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for creative writers.
An award-winning author of four books of poetry, Pelegrin also recently received the Akron Poetry Prize for her latest poetry collection “Big Muddy River of Stars,” which will be published in fall 2007 by the University of Akron Press.
Additionally, Pelegrin has learned that two poems from the collection will be published in a special issue of “The Southern Review” devoted to writing in the south.
“This is a truly extraordinary award and a remarkable achievement for Alison,” David Hansen, interim head of the Department of English, said of Pelegrin’s NEA fellowship. “Only about 40 creative writing fellowships are given nationwide from an applicant pool of about 1,300.”
Hansen said the creative writing fellowship program is designed to encourage the production of new literary work and allow writers the time and means to write. “By supporting writers at critical stages of their careers,” he said, “the National Endowment for the Arts ensures that American readers have access to a diversity of voices who will define the contours of the American experience during the 21st century.”
Pelegrin is the author of “Dancing with the One-Armed Man,” “Voodoo Lips,” “The Zydeco Tablets,” and "Squeezers." A native of Gretna and resident of Mandeville, she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees at Southeastern and a master of fine arts degree in creative writing at the University of Arkansas.
Pelegrin’s life growing up on the Tickfaw River, encounters on the Mississippi River, and her personal experiences during Hurricane Katrina are depicted in “Big Muddy River of Stars,” which includes 45 poems.
“My favorite thing about teaching is to stand up in front of class and read poems,” said Pelegrin, noting that she wants to reach students the way she was ‘reached’ by English language and writing professors such as Timothy Gautreaux, an award-winning novelist and writer-in-residence at Southeastern.
“I didn’t become serious about poetry until I went to college,” said Pelegrin. “Professor Gautreax turned me around, gave me clarity, and I never stopped writing.”
“The quality of her verse is first rate and I would rank it with the writing of the best young poets currently working anywhere," said Gautreaux.
Pelegrin received Southeastern’s 2004 President’s Award for Excellence in Artistic Activity. The President’s Awards are Southeastern’s most prestigious faculty honor and are presented annually for achievement in research, teaching, artistic activity and service. Her poems have been published in “Poetry,” “Southern Review,” and “Shenandoah."
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