MANKATO — A Minnesota State University associate professor has been chosen for a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship.
Chris McCormick, of the creative writing department, is one of 35 writers chosen for this year’s $25,000 award.
Fellows are selected through an anonymous review process and judged on the artistic excellence of the work sample they provided. More than 2,100 eligible applications were received.
The fellowships are in fiction and creative nonfiction and enable the recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career development.
McCormick is the author of a novel, “The Gimmicks,” a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and a short story collection, “Desert Boys,” winner of the 2017 Stonewall Book Award — Barbara Gittings Literature Award. His essays and stories have appeared in The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times and The Southern Review.
The son of an Armenian mother and American father, McCormick grew up in the Antelope Valley in California before earning his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and master’s from the University of Michigan.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to continue its longstanding investment in our nation’s writers,” stated NEA Director of Literary Arts Amy Stolls in a news release. “It is through their creativity and dedication that our nation’s literary landscape continues to be enriched with stories, perspectives, and ideas that reflect the rich diversity of cultures and strengthens our democracy.”
Since 1967, the NEA has awarded more than 3,700 Creative Writing Fellowships totaling over $58 million. Many American recipients of the National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and Fiction were recipients of National Endowment for the Arts fellowships early in their careers.
Visit arts.gov to browse bios and artist statements from the 2024 recipients and past fellows.