Prizewinning Poetry

GAMBIER, Ohio (January 2, 2007) G.C. Waldrep, visiting assistant professor of English at Kenyon in 2006-08, has won a 2007 literature fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA received more than 1,056 applications for its Creative Writing Fellowships in Poetry and has chosen fifty writers to receive fellowships of $20,000 each. Literature fellowships are the NEA's most direct investment in American creativity, encouraging the production of new work and allowing writers the time and means to write.

"It's a wonderful honor," Waldrep said. An anonymous panel of judges analyzes the submitted portfolios and chooses the fellowship winners. Waldrep submitted a selection of poems from his forthcoming book, Disclamor, which is scheduled to be published in August 2007 by BOA Editions. Disclamor-the title came from a former student's misspelling of "disclaimer"-was conceived during a two-month residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin County, California, in 2003.

"These grants and fellowships underscore the NEA's role in bringing the highest quality art to the most people possible," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "From public art works to professional development opportunities to literary fellowships that foster developing talent, these grants represent a valuable investment in American art."

Waldrep holds degrees in American history from both Harvard and Duke and an MFA in poetry from the University of Iowa. His first book of poems, Goldbeater's Skin, won the 2003 Colorado Prize for Poetry, judged by Donald Revell, as well as a Greenwall award from the Academy of American Poets. He is also the author of two chapbooks, "The Batteries" (New Michigan Press, 2006) and "One Way No Exit" (Narwhal, forthcoming).

His poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Gettysburg Review, Boston Review, New England Review, Georgia Review, Colorado Review, American Letters & Commentary, Tin House, New American Writing, and other journals. His work has received awards from the Poetry Society of America, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Campbell Corner Foundation, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. He has been selected for residencies at Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Ucross Foundation, the Headlands Center for the Arts, and elsewhere.

Waldrep is also the author of a nonfiction book, Southern Workers and the Search for Community, which won the 2001 Illinois Prize for history.