By
Vanessa Francis
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Grant money will be used to pay transportation, housing costs for visiting poets
The National Endowment for the Arts recently awarded the UA Poetry Center $10,000 to support their current poetry series readings.
"Our series has a great amount of diversity and a stellar reputation across the country," said Poetry Center director Jim Paul.
The series, titled "Wide Open: Poetry in the Larger World," has featured seven nationally acclaimed poets during the fall semester, with six scheduled to appear this spring.
Paul said he anticipates the funds will be used for transportation and housing costs for the visiting poets.
"It will be used to fund the plane fares for those poets who travel from San Francisco and the East Coast," Paul said. "Plus we put them up here, and plus the readings are free, so we (the Center) don't make any money."
The application for the grant was submitted last April, and the Poetry Center was notified this last week of their win.
The grant is included in NEA's Creativity category, where 718 other awards were given totaling 16 million dollars in grant money, Paul said.
While Paul said he is proud of the program's diversity regarding the visiting poets, he would like to see more women and minority poets included in next year's schedule.
"I would love to see cowboy poets, hip-hoppers, and we are even looking into a Irish Festival for next year."
The next writer scheduled to read is Aurelie Sheehan, a University of Arizona assistant professor of creative writing and author of "Jack Kerouac is Pregnant: Stories," on Jan. 31 at 8 p.m.
