Well, I’m thrilled. …

Well, I'm thrilled. I've been awarded an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Prose, a $7000 grant!

This comes at such a good time; I was up until 4 a.m. last night stressing over money -- not so much over our personal funds, but over the fact that we're going to be on a tight budget for the next six months, and likely wouldn't have any left over for DesiLit or SLF if they didn't do well with fundraising. Now I can set some of the fellowship money aside for paying taxes or astronomical heating bills or other major personal expenses that are a bit hard to predict, and keep the rest in reserve for the art foundations if they need 'em. Whew.

And of course, aside from all the money issues, it's just lovely to get the artistic validation. This is my first real literary prize, and it makes me super happy. :-) After all the stress and self-doubt with the frustrating novel, it's just so nice to hear that people still like my writing.

Y'know, I almost didn't apply. Didn't think I would even get a $700 finalist award, much less a fellowship. I did the application at the very last minute. Whew.

Yay!

8 thoughts on “Well, I’m thrilled. …”

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *