Past
Grantees

Writer Karen Lound was awarded $800 for a week's stay in Suffolk, Virginia. She'll research and explore the Great Dismal Swamp of Virginia, a site that figures significantly in her new collection of stories. Lound has arranged an interview with the book editor of the VIRGINIAN-PILOT/THE LEDGER-STAR, to increase her visibility as a cross-regional writer.

Singer Ruth MacKenzie was awarded $3,727 to spend three weeks in Finland. The purpose of her trip is to study Finnish folk singing. This course of study will help her bring to life Finnish folk songs and other ethnic music in a subsequent recording project.

Marie Markoe, a writer and visual artist, was awarded $5,000 for five months of study in the United Kingdom. She plans to visit sites associated with gods, goddesses and other mythic characters, and explore places associated with writers who have chosen to work from these same sources.

Writer Anita Mathias received $1,805 to spend three weeks in Mangalore and Bangalore, India. She'll record the oral history of her Roman Catholic Mangalorian community and interview older members of her family. Mathias plans to write essays about the material, which will be woven into her memoir, An Indian Childhood.

Writer/director Judy McGuire and performer/director Carolyn Goelzer were awarded $5,000 to spend three to five weeks traveling from Moscow to Beijing by Trans-Mongolian Railway. This trip, which crosses two continents, seven time zones and almost 100 degrees of longitude will provide the impetus for a collaborative, multimedia work the two intend to create.

Author Margaret Miles received $3,630 to travel to New York City, Washington, D.C., Florida and Missouri over a two month period. Miles is working on a novel thematically based on the nature of restlessness in the history of American exploration, immigration and modern day travel. Among the sites she intends to visit are the Museum of Immigration on Ellis Island, New York; the National Cartographic Archives in Washington, D.C.; and the Pony Express Museum in Missouri. She'll also visit lesser known yet significant places such as the Drive-In Funeral Home in Louisiana, the Choo Choo Hilton Hotel in Tennessee and the Kingdom of Oyotunji, South Carolina.

Poet Jim Moore was awarded $2,400 to spend three weeks in Calcutta, India. He'll research and draft work for a persona poem in the voice of a woman who was born in India, but adopted and raised in the United States. Moore's personal experiences fuel his passion and desire for the journey.