We are pleased to announce that Josie Sigler, one of our advising URI faculty for The Ocean State Review, has been awarded a literature fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).  NEA Senior Deputy Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced that Josie Sigler has been selected to receive a FY 2014 $25,000 Creative Writing Fellowship in Prose (fiction). The creative writing fellowship is one of only 38 awarded nationwide.  Sigler is the author of living must bury (poems, Fence Books, 2010) and The Galaxie and Other Rides (stories, Livingston Press, 2012).

Sigler was awarded the fellowship based on the manuscript submitted in the application and reviewed through an anonymous process in which the only criteria for review are artistic excellence and artistic merit. She will use her time as a fellow to work on her forthcoming novel, which has also been funded by URI’s Center for the Humanities, the Provost Faculty Development Fund, and the Beaupre Hope & Heritage Fund.

“This is a formidable group of both emerging and well-established writers,” said NEA Acting Director of Literature Amy Stolls. “They demonstrate an impressive range of styles and subject matter. We are proud to recommend each of them for an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship.”

“This amazingly generous fellowship comes at the perfect time as I complete research for my upcoming novel,” Sigler said. “I’m thrilled and honored to have been selected.”