The Sundress Academy for the Arts is proud to announce the winners of The Tennessee Writer Scholarship, The Writer of Color Scholarship, and the Appalachian Writers Scholarship. Winners receive a week-long residency at Firefly Farms courtesy of the Tennessee Arts Commission.
Writer of Color Winners
Born in Guatemala and raised in Arizona, María Isabel Alvarez is currently an M.F.A. candidate at Arizona State University. Her writing has been published in Black Warrior Review, Sonora Review, Colorado Review, Gulf Coast, Arts & Letters, and Puerto del Sol, among others, and was awarded first prize in the Blue Earth Review Flash Fiction contest. Follow her on Twitter: @maria_i_alvarez
darlene anita scott is a poet and visual artist whose works examine the corporeal performance of trauma and the violence of silence. scott’s writing and art have appeared in J Journal: New Writing on Justice, the jonestown report, Star 82 Review, Hot Metal Bridge, and The Baltimore Review among others and has been supported by grants from the Delaware Division of the Arts, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, The National Arts Program, and the College English Association. scott lives and teaches in Virginia.
Tennessee Writer Winners
Jeremy Michael Reed is a PhD student in Creative Writing at the University of Tennessee. His poems are published in Public Pool, Still, Stirring, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Knoxville, where he works for Grist: A Journal of the Literary Arts and co-directs The Only Tenn-I-See Reading Series. More of his work can be found at http://www.jeremymichaelreed.com.
Rachel Hoge is a Tennessee native who loves sweet tea and her family garden. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Rumpus, the Washington Post, Pembroke Magazine, Ravishly, and others. She’s an MFA candidate at the University of Central Arkansas, a previous intern at the Oxford American and BookPage, a ghostwriter upon occasion, and a strong believer in the pseudonym. Lately, she’s been hard at work on her first nonfiction book. You can follow her on Twitter @hoge_rachel
Appalachian Writer Winner
Lisa Kwong is an AppalAsian writer in the Midwest, where she currently teaches Asian American Studies and Freshman Composition at Indiana University in Bloomington and coordinates the Fountain Square Poetry Series. Her poems and creative nonfiction are forthcoming or have appeared in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Best New Poets 2014, the minnesota review, Still: The Journal, Naugatuck River Review, Banango Street, Appalachian Heritage, Pluck!, and other journals.
All scholarships were provided by the Tennessee Arts Commission. The Tennessee Arts Commission fosters creative endeavors and activities across the state of Tennessee. By investing in nonprofits, engaging with art educators and students, and providing grants that fund art programs, the Tennessee Arts Commission is committed to artistic expression and innovation.
The Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, is an artists’ retreat on a 45-acre farm in Knoxville, Tennessee that offers residencies to writers, visual artists, filmmakers, composers, and more, from across the country. With two residency rooms on site, we offer a rotating space for nationally recognized and emerging artists in multiple disciplines.
