RALEIGH - Sixteen artists - including three poets, three fiction writers, two nonfiction writers, two playwrights, three composers, two screenwriters and a songwriter - are recipients of the North Carolina Arts Council’s 2007-08 North Carolina Fellowship Awards. The Arts Council announced the Awards on December 5. For more information about the Fellowship Award program, click here.
Recipients are: Miriam Angress, playwright (Durham); Erica Berkeley, fiction writer (Chatham); Bethany Chaney, nonfiction writer (Orange); Brian Crocker, fiction writer (Guilford); Melanie Drane, poet (Durham); Marc Faris, composer (Pitt); Jeffrey Dean Foster, songwriter (Forsyth); Roger Franks, screenwriter (Johnston); Nichole Gause, playwright (Mecklenburg); Steve Haines, composer (Guilford); Laura Hope-Gill, nonfiction writer (Buncombe); Roy Jacobstein, poet (Orange); Jennifer Mackenzie, screenwriter (New Hanover); Barbara Presnell, poet (Davidson); Sherry Shaw, fiction writer (Gaston); and Baron Tymas, jazz composer (Durham).
“Fellowships allow us to acknowledge the important work that artists create in our communities,” said Mary B. Regan, Executive Director of the North Carolina Arts Council. “Professional artists enhance our culture and enliven our economy, and they deserve acclaim and affirmation for the positive impact they make in the lives of North Carolinians.”
Each artist receives an award of $10,000, up from $8,000 the previous year, which allows the artists to concentrate on the creative process or a specific project. The Artist Fellowship program operates on a two-year rotating cycle by discipline. Since the program’s inception in 1980, more than 475 artists have received awards.
Recipients were selected during a panel comprised of experienced artists and arts professionals.
Miriam Angress, playwright (Durham)
Miriam Angress received a bachelor of arts degree in English from Duke University. She is the Assistant Acquisitions Editor for Duke University Press. Currently, Angress is working on a full production of her newest play, How Water Speaks to Rock, a work about the ethical, political, emotional and spiritual concerns around protecting the environment. In addition to writing screenplays, Angress enjoys directing, acting and studying movement. She also enjoys yoga, African dance and she is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
Erica Berkeley, fiction writer (Chatham)
Erica Berkeley received a bachelor of arts degree in Women’s Studies from Bates College and currently works as an editorial associate for The Sun Magazine in Chapel Hill, a monthly literary magazine featuring fiction, poetry, essays, interviews and photography. She is also the founder and leader of The Written Word, a group of ongoing writing workshops for beginning and experienced writers of all genres. Berkeley was chosen as a runner-up in the 2005 Brenda L. Smart Fiction Contest.
Bethany Chaney, nonfiction writer (Orange)
Bethany Chaney received a master of business administration degree from Northeastern University and a bachelor of arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is currently an independent consultant, assisting non-profit organizations with an emphasis on the community economic development sector. She is the author of Reflecting on Arab-American Identity, published by “Al Jadid: A Review and Record of Arab Culture and Arts” (2004) and co-authored “Power of Rural Philanthropy” for SRDI/New Ventures in Philanthropy in 2005.
Brian Crocker, fiction writer (Guilford)
Brian Crocker received a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a bachelor of arts degree from Appalachian State University. He is a teacher for Guilford County Schools at SCALE Academy. Additionally he is a contributing editor, staff writer and freelancer for Pace Communications in Greensboro. He was a 2006 Gulf Coast Review Fiction Award Finalist. His work has appeared in the Mississippi Review and AAA Living. His current work includes a book of fiction and a memoir.
Melanie Drane, poet (Durham)
Melanie Drane received a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine; doctor of philosophy degree from the Department of Government, London School of Economics; master of arts degree in political science from the University of California at Berkeley; and bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University. Drane recently became the first non-British poet to win the United Kingdom’s National Poetry Competition for her poem, “The Year the Rice Crop Failed,” in 2006. During her 17 years as an expatriate, she studied and worked in Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and Japan. Her poems have been in journals including The Iowa Review, The North American Review, Atlanta Review, Nimrod, Poetry Review (UK), and Witness. In addition to first prize in the National Poetry Competition of the United Kingdom, Drane has won numerous awards, including a fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center, a fellowship from the University of New Orleans for study abroad in Europe and a finalist award in the Iowa Award Contest.
Marc Faris, composer (Pitt)
Marc Faris received a doctorate of philosophy degree in music composition from Duke University and his bachelor of music from Eastman School of Music. He is currently a teaching assistant professor at the School of Music at East Carolina University and is the Development Director of pulsoptional, a new music ensemble and composers’ collective in Durham. Faris recently completed a set of studies for solo piano commissioned by Josh Nemith, a piece called “Unlucky Numbers for Electric Kompany,” which premiered this past spring in New York and a piece for oboe, alto saxophone, two electric guitars and percussion called Silver Smile, which premiered in Durham this past spring.
Jeffrey Dean Foster, songwriter (Forsyth)
Jeffrey Dean Foster received a bachelor of arts degree in communications from Appalachian State University. In addition to his work as songwriter and musician, Foster has been painting houses in Winston-Salem for ten years. In 2005, he recorded and released a solo CD, “Million Star Hotel,” following a live solo EP, “the leaves turn upside down.” Foster has worked on numerous other musical projects and collaborations, including recorded music for the theatrical trailer for “Junebug,” an appearance with veteran actor William Shatner in several television commercials, and work on several soundtracks, including one for a Music Television (MTV) sports segment.
Roger Franks, screenwriter (Johnston)
Roger Franks began writing six years ago, attending a pitch festival for scriptwriters. After entering a script into the FADE IN competition and placing in the finals, he began sending works to production companies. With a background in electrical repair and industrial maintenance, Franks hopes to switch gears and establish a small production company in North Carolina to shoot personal, independent films using local talent. Franks has nine complete screenplays of various genres and is currently working on two more.
Nichole Gause, playwright (Mecklenburg)
Nichole Gause received a master of social work from the University of South Carolina and a bachelor of arts in sociology with a minor in business from Winthrop University. She currently works as a social worker in Charlotte, where she lives with her husband and young daughter. Her novel, “Café Bless,” is to be printed by Walk Worthy Press in 2008. Her story “Every Good-bye Ain’t Gone,” was published by the Charlotte Writers Club Anthology in 2007. She has more than 15 printed works, three theater productions and numerous awards including a Semi-Finalist Award for the North Carolina State Story Contest, the Mecklenburg County Emerging Artist Award and a South Carolina Academy of Authors Poetry Fellowship. Her works include fiction, poetry, playwriting, devotionals and non-fiction.
Steve Haines, jazz composer (Guilford)
Steve Haines received a master of music jazz studies from the University of North Texas and a bachelor of music jazz studies from St. Francis Xavier University. He is the Director of the Miles Davis Program in Jazz Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Haines performs as bassist with the Steve Haines Quintet: Beginner’s Mind, and he has performed at the Lincoln Center in New York, the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and has performed in many other countries including Canada, Finland, Norway, Ukraine and Moldova. He has performed with legendary musicians Ellis Marsalis, Kenny Garrett, Marcus Roberts, Jason Marsalis and Richard Stoltzman, among others. Haines is recording with world famous drummer Jimmy Cobb, the only surviving member from Miles Davis’ masterpiece Kind of Blue. He continues to take commissions, having recently completed a piece from a program at Brockport High School in New York. He is practicing and composing for his next album.
Laura Hope-Gill, nonfiction writer (Buncombe)
Laura Hope-Gill received a master of fine arts degree from the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers and a bachelor of arts degree from Rollins College. She currently teaches World Literature to 10th graders at Christ School, an Episcopal boarding school. She has traveled extensively and lived in England, Canada, Australia and the United States. Additionally, she is an on-air co-host for “Wordplay,” a weekly thirty-minute poetry radio program on WPVM. Diagnosed with degenerative hearing loss at the age of 28, she is now a proficient lip reader and is intrigued with the transition from auditory to visual hearing. Much of her work focuses on this transition, and her current projects include “Water Search,” a collection of short stories using experimental prose-poetry forms, sacred text and music, and “Girls Who Can’t Hear,” a duet performance in sign language of poetry and vignettes pertinent to deaf and hearing cultures. She also recently completed a book of poems called “This Animal Earth: the Alchemical Love Poetry of Sir Isaac Newton.”
Roy Jacobstein, poet (Orange)
Roy Jacobstein received a master of fine arts degree from the Warren Wilson College Program for Writers and a bachelor’s, doctor of medicine and master of public health degrees from the University of Michigan. He is an adjunct professor at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Jacobstein’s recent book, “Fuschia in Cambodia,” will be published by Northwestern University/TriQuarterly Press in 2008. “Fuschia in Cambodia,” a narrative centering on the adoption of his daughter in Cambodia on September 12, 2001, is Jacobstein’s third book publication since 2001. He has also published one chapbook with more than 100 poems published in literary journals such as The Gettysburg Review, Mid-American Review, Poetry Daily, Southwest Review, TriQuarterly, The Wallace Stevens Journal and The Washington Post.
Jennifer Mackenzie, screenwriter (New Hanover)
Jennifer Mackenzie received her bachelor of arts with high honors in philosophy from the University of Florida. In 2003, Mackenzie became a full-time scriptwriter, submitting her first script in 2004 to the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, reaching the semifinal round. A second script, “The Space Between,” followed in 2005, and Mackenzie is currently at work on her third screenplay, a romantic comedy/drama set in Hampstead.
Barbara Presnell, poet (Davidson)
Barbara Presnell received a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, a master of arts in English from the University of Kentucky, and a bachelor of arts in English from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is a lecturer in English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The Cleveland State University Press recently published “Presnell’s Piece Work,” a collection of poetry about textile manufacturing in North Carolina. More than 100 of Presnell’s poems appear in literary journals including The Southern Review, The Cimarron Review, The Laurel Review, The Atlanta Review, Tar River Poetry Review, Malahat Review, North Carolina Literary Review, The Florida Review and The New Delta Review. She has lived in Lexington for 12 years and will be participating in the Bricolage Arts Festival with collaborator and composer Bonnie Duckworth in a music and poetry program, “Listen!”
Sherry Shaw, fiction writer (Gaston)
Sherry Shaw received a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Hollins University and a bachelor of arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Shaw is a freelance writer and editor working out of Gastonia. She is the 2006 recipient of the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize for her work, “October.” She was published in the Spring 2006 Sou’wester and her work has been featured on National Public Radio’s Web site. Her fellowship will be used to prepare her first novel for publication and to complete a short story collection.
Baron Tymas, jazz composer (Durham)
Baron Tymas received a master of music and a bachelor of arts degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C. He is currently Assistant Director of Jazz Studies at North Carolina Central University in Durham, Adjunct Instructor at North Carolina State University and a guitar instructor at the National Guitar Workshop in Connecticut. He performs with the Baron Tymas Trio, a jazz quintet called Nebulous, the North Carolina Central University Faculty Jazz Combo, and F.R.E.N.S., a jazz-funk group. Tymas has also been part of the orchestra for North Carolina Theatre’s “Hairspray,” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Pippin” and “Broadway in Concert: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Weber.”