Get Writing: The Black Mountain Institute Fellowship

We recently got news that on October 1, 2008 applications for the 2009-10 writing fellowship cycle of the Black Mountain Institute will be available from their website.

Founded in 2006, Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is an international center dedicated to advancing literary and cross-cultural dialog.  nine-month award gives Fellows $50,000, an office, and time to write. There is also another fellowship with the Library of Congress. That candidate spends a portion of his or her time in Las Vegas and in Washington.

A current fellow at the Black Mountain Institute is Robert Rosenberg (Kyrgyzstan 1994–96), author of This Is Not Civilization. Rosenberg is the Sonja and Michael Saltman Fellow. He is also the recipient of the 2005 Maria Thomas Fiction Award presented by PeaceCorpsWriters.

Rosenberg is currently at work on a novel set in Istanbul that explores the overlapping heritage of Jews and Armenians in the city, and he frequently contributes book reviews to The Miami Herald and The Moscow Times.  After the Peace Corps Robert  taught high school on the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Arizona. A graduate of Columbia University, he received an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he was awarded a Maytag Fellowship and a Teaching/Writing Fellowship. He is an assistant professor of English and creative writing at Bucknell University. Robert heard about this Fellowship by reading www.peacecorpswriters.org.

Black Mountain awards three to five fellowships each year to outstanding writers who have published at least one critically acclaimed book before the time of application. Foreign nationals conversant in English are welcome to apply. There are no degree requirements.  If you qualify, (i.e. you have written a well received book) contact Black Mountain Institute at blackmountaininstitute@unlv.edu.