2008 SASE/Jerome Grant Recipients

DHANA-MARIE BRANTON is a Minneapolis-based creative nonfiction writer. She will return to the New York State Writers Institute to study with Phillip Lopate. A native Chicagoan, Dhana-Marie is also an award-winning playwright whose work has been produced in Chicago and New York City.

CHARLES CONLEY is a graduate of the University of Minnesota’s MFA in Creative Writing program. He lives in Minneapolis and will use the SASE/Jerome grant to complete his short story collection.

ELISSA ELLIOTT received a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and her master’s in education from UCLA. Her first novel will be published by Bantam Books in the Fall of 2008. Her work has appeared in The Baltimore Review, and her book reviews have been printed in Books & Culture and Paste Magazine and Elle. She is a former winner of the Loft Mentor Series and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her first screenplay is scheduled to begin filming in the Summer of 2008. She’s been a finalist for the McKnight Screenwriters Fellowship and a semi-finalist for the Nicholl Screenwriters Fellowship. She lives in Rochester with her husband.

LAURA FLYNN was born and raised in San Francisco, California. She is the author of Swallow the Ocean––a memoir of growing up in the face of her mother’s catastrophic mental illness–– published by Counterpoint Press in February 2008. She received her BA from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and her MFA in creative writing from the University of Minnesota, where she served as the inaugural fellow in the Scribe for Human Rights Project, jointly sponsored by the Human Rights and the Creative Writing Programs at the University of Minnesota. She has been an activist and human rights advocate all her adult life. She lived in Haiti from 1994-2000 and remains deeply involved in the struggle for democracy and human dignity in that country. She is the editor of Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a Path for the Poor in the Age of Globalization by Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Common Courage Press, 2000. She currently teaches editing at the University of Minnesota, and lives in Minneapolis with her husband, poet Mike Rollin.

JOHN MEDEIROS is a writer living in Minneapolis. His work has appeared in Water~Stone, Gulf Coast; Willow Springs; Gents, Badboys and Barbarians: An Anthology of New Gay Male Poetry; Evergreen Chronicles; Christopher Street; Chiron Review; and Writers Against War. He is the recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board grant; Gulf Coast's First Place Nonfiction Award; and the Blacklock Nature Sanctuary Fellowship for Emerging Artists. He is a recent graduate of Hamline University, where his memoir Self, Divided was awarded the Outstanding Creative Nonfiction Thesis of the Year, and his work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He is currently the Writer-in-Residence at the Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts in Fridley, Minnesota.

RACHEL MORITZ received her MFA from the University of Minnesota. Her poetry chapbook, The Winchester Monologues, won the 2005 New Michigan Press Competition. Her work has been recently published or is forthcoming in Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Five Fingers Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Indiana Review and other journals. She edits WinteRed Press, a publisher of poetry chaplets and broadsides. She will use her SASE/Jerome grant to pursue a mentorship with an established poet and to work on her poetry manuscript.

MATT RASMUSSEN received a bachelor’s degree from Gustavus Adolphus College and a master’s degree in creative writing from Emerson College. He is a former Peace Corps Volunteer (Papua New Guinea ’99-‘01) and participant in the Loft Mentor Series (’06-’07). His poetry has been recently published or is forthcoming in Gulf Coast, Cimmaron Review, Passages North, Dislocate, New York Quarterly, LIT, and What Light: This Week’s Poem at mnartists.org. He currently lives in Robbinsdale and teaches at Gustavus Adolphus College and Rasmussen College. His chapbook, Fingergun, is available from Kitchen Press.

Previous SASE/Jerome Grant Recipients

ME-K AHN ($2,000) is a writer and film/videomaker. Her writing has appeared in Kori: The Beacon Anthology of Korean American Fiction and her videos have been screened at film festivals in Seoul and Brussels. She will use her SASE/Jerome grant to travel to New York to study with Heinz Insu Fenkl. (2003)

MAUREEN AITKEN ($3,000). Aitken’fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous publications and has been nominated for many awards. Her story, "This is Art" received an award in Ireland's Fish Short Story Prizes. She has received fellowships from The Vermont Studio Center and the Taos Writer's Workshop and, in 2002, she received a Loft Mentor Series Award. Ms. Aitken is co-editor of the new literary publication, Orchid, which debuted in 2002. She teaches writing in the University of Minnesota's General College. She will use her SASE/Jerome grant to take time off from teaching to complete her novel. (2003)

DALE GREGORY ANDERSON ($1,000) received an MFA from the University of Arizona in 1994. He is the recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, a Travel/Study grant from the Target General Mills, and Jerome Foundations, and Loft Mentor Series award. His fiction has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, Blithe House Quarterly, and elsewhere. He will use his SASE/Jerome award to take time off from work to revise his manuscript. (2003)

TERESA BALLARD ($3,550) is an art specialist residing in Minneapolis. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in: Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review, Pleiades, Poetry Northwest, The Drunken Boat, Comstock Review, Paumanok Review, Tryst, Three Candles as well as other literary and on-line journals. She has been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize and is currently working on a new manuscript of poetry. (2005)

KELLY BARNHILL ($4,000) is a writer and mom, living in Minneapolis. Her work has appeared in The Rake, The Heartlands Today, In The Fray, The Flow, Thin Coyote, and will be appearing later this year in The Sun. She has been a kosher meat slicer, a church janitor, a middle school teacher, a park ranger, a coffee jerk, and a certified wildland firefighter. (2007)

BRIAN BIEBER ($2,000) is a writer, musician, and performer. He was a founding editor of ache, a magazine of Twin Cities art and literature, and is a regular contributor to McSweeneys.net. Recently, his two-man band, the Brian Bieber Experience, broke up again. Brian will use his SASE/Jerome grant to take time off from work to write. He currently resides in his parents' basement. (2004)

STEPHANIE BOOKER ($1,500) of North Minneapolis is an editor of the African American newspaper Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder and holds an MFA from Hamline University of St. Paul. Her creative work has been published most recently in the online GLBT journal Blithe House Quarterly, the collection 60 Seconds to Shine: 221 One-minute Monologues For Women (Monologue Audition Series, Volume 2) edited by John Capecci and Irene Ziegler Aston (Smith & Kraus Inc., 2006), and the upcoming anthology Longing, Lust, and Love: Black Lesbian Stories edited by Shonia L. Brown (Nghosi Books, 2007). Stephani has read her prose and poetry at various Twin Cities-area venues including Patrick's Cabaret and Intermedia Arts. (2007)

SHA CAGE ($3,000) is a poet, playwright and performer. She is co-founder of The MN Spoken Word Association and the female theater collective, MaMa mOsAiC, and has worked with a variety of area theaters. She is co-writer (with MaMa mOsAiC) of Making Medea, The Bi Show and multimedia piece, and The Menstruation Project; also Penumbra Theater's Conflama. Her awards include a 2003 Jerome/Playwrights' Center Many Voices residency, and a 2003 Forecast Public Arts Grant. For more information, see http://www.truruts.com. She will use her SASE/Jerome grant to purchase a laptop computer, travel to Mississippi for research, and take time off from work to write. (2003)

MARK CONWAY ($1,000). Conway's work is forthcoming in Ploughshares and in the Grolier Poetry Prize Annual. Other work has appeared in The Paris Review, Gettysburg Review, Agni, Bomb, and The Harvard Review. He has been awarded fellowships from the Corporation of Yaddo, the Minnesota State Arts Board and The Jerome Foundation. He was John Atherton Scholar for Poetry at Bread Loaf and his entries on contemporary poets will appear in the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature (2003). He will use his SASE/Jerome grant to have his work read by a noted poet. (2003)

MARTIN COZZA ($2,000) is a stay-at-home parent who works as a freelance science editor at night. He is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, New York University, and the Iowa Writers Workshop. His fiction had appeared in Missouri Review, Columbia, Massachusetts Review, and Carolina Quarterly, and he has held a Yaddo fellowship, a Minnesota State Arts Board fellowship, and a previous SASE/Jerome award. He lives in south Minneapolis with his wife, son, and baby daughter. (2004)

KIRSTEN (PAURUS) DIERKING ($2,600) received a bachelor's degree in international affairs and history from the University of Colorado, and a master's degree in creative writing from Hamline University. Her writing has appeared in numerous journals including Great River Review, Water~Stone, and The Comstock Review. She is the recipient of a Fellowship Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, and a Career Initiative Grant from The Loft. She lives with her husband in Arden Hills, Minnesota. (2007)

ROBERT FUGLEI ($2,000) holds a BA in History from Macalester College and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota. His short-short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in GutCult, The Southeast Review, and The Butcher Shop. He lives in Minneapolis and teaches freshman composition at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. He will use his SASE/Jerome grant to take time off from work to complete his manuscript of short short stories. (2003)

KATHLEEN GLASGOW ($3,000) received her MFA from the University of Minnesota Creative Writing Program. Her work has appeared in The Bellingham Review, Clackamas Literary Review, Clark Street Review and Roanoke Review. She will use her SASE/Jerome grant to take time off from work to complete her novel. (2003)

JOHN JODZIO ($2,900) lives in Minneapolis. Recent fiction has appeared in McSweeney's Internet Concern, Opium.com, Pindeldyboz, Yankee Pot Roast and Bullfight Review. He also has stories in Opium #2 and The Quarterly #31 and has story in Opium Print #3 that won the Opium Fiction Prize. He is a former winner of The Loft Mentor Series and was recently nominated for the Best New American Voices series. (2007)

ISMAIL KARIM KHALIDI ($3,850) graduated from Macalester College in May 2005. He acted in Mizna's With Love From Ramallah at Mixed Blood Theater last June and is active with the Macalester Theater program, where he appeared in a production of Mohammed Maghut's The Jester. He has worked with Pangaea World Theater on In the Mirror and Truth Serum Blues, which he co-wrote with Bassam Jarbawi. He has performed around the Twin Cities and his writing has appeared in Mizna as well as Electronic Intifada. Ismail recently received The Playwright Center's Many Voices Award. (2005)

BAKER LAWLEY ($2,000), a native of Alabama, focuses much of his fiction on the South, making use of the cultural and geographical perspective provided by working at a distance in Minnesota. His current project is a novel, tentatively titled Haints, focusing on a small town's reaction when their annual Civil War battle reenactment goes terribly wrong one year. An earlier version of the manuscript was chosen as a semifinalist in the Words and Music Literary Competition in 2004. Baker's short fiction has appeared in The Southeast Review and Oyster Boy Review. He graduated from the M.F.A. program at the University of Alabama in 2003, and currently teaches in the English department at Gustavus Adolphus College. He lives in south Minneapolis with his wife and hound dogs. (2007)

ED BOK LEE's ($2,250) first book of poetry and prose was chosen by New Rivers Press and will be published in fall 2005. His various work has appeared in such journals and anthologies as Arts & Letters: Journal of Contemporary Culture, Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2003-2004, Manoa, Mizna, and Take Ten II (Vintage Books). He would like to thank SASE and the Jerome Foundation for their generous support. (2004)

ALEX LEMON's ($2,750) poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Jabberwock Review, Octopus, typo magazine, Swink, Pleiades, Washington Square, Black Warrior Review, Indiana Review, New Orleans Review, CutBank, and Sonora Review, among other publications. His translations (with poet Wang Ping) are forthcoming in New American Writing and other journals. He lives and teaches in the Twin Cities. (2004)

APRIL LOTT ($3,000) is a 2003 recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board Grant. She received her MFA in poetry from the University of Virginia. She is a graduate of the Clarion West Science Fiction Workshop and is a current Cave Canem Fellow. Her poems have appeared in various literary magazines, including Virginia Quarterly Review, Loonfeather, Flyway, Oasis and Dreams and Nightmares. (2004)

BRANDON LUSSIER ($2,000) (2007)

JESSICA NORDELL ($3,350) is a poet and freelance writer living in Minneapolis. In 2005, she produced the Minnesota Public Radio series Literary Friendships. From 2003-2005 she worked as a sketch comedy writer for A Prairie Home Companion; she has a photo on her refrigerator of her boss with The Boss. She grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (2005)

JULIET PATTERSON's ($1,000) work has appeared in Verse, Conduit, DIAGRAM, The Journal, Bloom, 42opus and other publications. She received a 2004 fellowship with the Institute for Community and Cultural Developement through Intermedia Arts and a 2003 Arts Fellowship from the Minnesota State Arts Board. She teaches poetry and creative writing through The Loft, Minneapolis Public Libraries, and the Perpich Center for Arts Education. She has also worked with children as a volunteer educator with the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights and with the United Cambodian Association of Minnesota youth programs. (2004)

GARY ELDON PETER's ($1000) short stories have appeared in Water~Stone, Great River Review, River Oak Review, Evergreen Chronicles, Orchid: A Literary Review, Blithe House Quarterly, and other publications. His awards include a 2002 Loft Mentor Series Award, a 2000 Loft-McKnight Fellowship in Creative Prose, a 1999 Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, and a 1998 SASE/Jerome grant. He is the author of Oranges, a collection of short fiction, and is at work on a novel, Carl Paulsen. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College, lives in St. Paul, and teaches in the General College Writing Program at the University of Minnesota. (2005)

SUN YUNG SHIN ($2,000). Shin’s poetry, prose, and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in a variety of publications. She was a participant in the Loft Mentor Series in 2002-2003 and received a Jerome/Asian American Renaissance re-grant for poetry in 2001. Her children's book, Cooper's Lesson (Children's Book Press), will be released in March 2004. She is currently co-editing, with Jane Jeong Trenka and Julia Sudbury, an anthology titled Outsiders Within: Transracial Adoptees on Race & Belonging. She will use her SASE/Jerome grant to travel to Korea to conduct research for a new book of poems and to pay for child care to complete the manuscript. (2003)

YUKO TANIGUCHI's ($3,000) first volume of poetry, Foreign Wife Elegy, was published by Coffee House Press in 2004. She is currently working on "The Ocean in the Closet," a novel that traces from the 1970s in the United States to World War II-era Japan. Taniguchi is also working on her second poetry manuscript, which emphasizes the connection between poetry and music. She is the recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Assistance Fellowship and James Wright Academy of American Poets. (2004)

MAGGIE WANDER ($3,350) aka Dessa, is a writer and a rapper living in Minneapolis. Her true essays tend towards funny/sad, which seems to be the prevailing sentiment of her daily affairs. She focuses on the small weekday moments that attest to the heroism of everyday life. She hopes to live and write within the intersection of compassion and wit. (2005)

ELIZABETH WEIR ($750) was a winner in SecondWind's 2004 poetry contest and Honorable Mention in the 2003 and 2005 Loft Mentor Series for poetry. She was a finalist for Blue List Press's chapbook contest in 2003 and 2005. In 1995, she received the Robert L. Carothers Distinguished Writer Award at Metropolitan State University. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in American Poetry Quarterly, Sidewalks, ArtWord Quarterly, Out of Line, Alimentation, Water~Stone and in the award-winning 2003 anthology Voices for the Land. (2005)