Specifically, the Friends of the Lake Oswego Library William Stafford Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction. Which means I'll be spending some time this year working on a memoir about my childhood being raised by...well, the sort of people who would name a child "Myrlin Ambrosia Hermes." You can read a short excerpt from it at the Literary Arts online chapbook, as well as some very kind and insightful words from judge Michael Pearson and a Q&A in which I tried my best to answer both honestly and thoughtfully. My favorite answer, to a question about my creative process:
"Writing, for me, is like trying to remember a vivid and complicated dream. You can see and understand the entire scene in a flash, but it gets slippery when you try to pin down the details."
Read the entire interview, as well as excerpts from the other honored writers, at the link above. And if you're an Oregon resident with a literary project in mind, there are still a couple of weeks left to get your application in for next year's awards. I've applied for several years running, so it just goes to show that you never know when your work will resonate with the judges. Good luck!
