Deadline Approaching for the Pattie Layser Greater Yellowstone Creative Writing and Journalism Fellowship
The deadline is approaching for The Wyoming Arts Council’s 2022 Pattie Layser Greater Yellowstone Creative Writing and Journalism Fellowship. The application deadline is March 15, 2022. Applications are accepted online via Submittable at https://wyomingartscouncil.
This annual prestigious fellowship of $3,500 is a national call open to creative writers (poetry, fiction, nonfiction) and journalists (writer, photojournalist, videographer, documentary filmmaker, online or print media) who demonstrate serious inquiry and dedication to the Greater Yellowstone region through their work. With generous funding from The Pattie and Earle Layser Memorial Fund, this fellowship seeks to intersect science, education, current events, and conservation to effectively communicate the Greater Yellowstone’s natural history and singular importance to society through creative and exceptional writing and subject communication. Established and recognized authors are being sought, but emerging and mid-career writers are also encouraged to apply.
The fellowship recipient will be expected to create or complete a relevant publishable or produced work and may be requested or encouraged to make public presentations. In addition to the financial award, the fellowship recipient may elect to also receive a one to two week housing residency at one of several prearranged different locations within the Greater Yellowstone region. Such residency will be based on availability and will be negotiated with the fellowship recipient.
Christine Peterson will serve as a juror for the second year in a row. Christine has covered wildlife, the environment and outdoor recreation in Wyoming and across the West for more than a decade, first at the Casper Star-Tribune” then as a freelance journalist. She has since written about grizzly bears, wolves, elk and insects for “National Geographic,” water law and persistence hunting for “Outdoor Life” and chronic wasting disease and landlocked public land for “High Country News.” Her byline has also appeared in “The Guardian,” “Bugle” and the “Cool Green Science” web magazine. She is a regular contributor to the “Casper Star-Tribune” and “Wyofile” and is a contributing writer for “Outdoor Life.” She's the president of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and has won numerous regional and national awards. When she's not reporting or writing from her home in Laramie, she's wandering the West with her husband, five-year-old daughter and graying yellow Labrador.
Susan J. Tweit joins Christine as a juror this year. An award-winning writer and plant ecologist, Susan J. Tweit began her career in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, studying grizzly bear habitat—which included collecting and dissecting large piles of bear poop, mapping historic wildfires, and researching big sagebrush. Tweit began writing after realizing that she loved telling the stories behind the data as much as collecting the data. She's written thirteen non-fiction books ranging from memoir and nature writing to kids and travel, along with hundreds of magazine articles, columns, and essays. Tweit's work has been honored with the Foreword Book of the Year, Colorado Book Award, the EDDIE for magazine writing, Downing Journalism Award, and many other awards. Her “WildLives” nature commentaries were a popular weekly feature on public radio for over a decade. She searches for stories in the Rocky Mountain region, wherever big sagebrush perfumes the air. When Tweit is not writing, she's most often outside eradicating invasive weeds as part of her passion for re-storying this earth. Her thirteenth book, the memoir, “Bless the Birds: Living With Love in a Time of Dying,” was published just before Earth Day in 2021.
A complete list of eligibility requirements and additional information can be found on the Wyoming Arts Council website at www.wyomingartscouncil.org. For more information, contact Taylor Craig at 307-274-6673.
Image caption: 2022 jurors Christine Peterson (left) and Susan J. Tweit (right).