December 21, 2004: Headlines: COS - Estonia: Writing - Estonia: Poetry: Awards: Alameda Times-Star: Estonia RPCV John Isles wins coveted NEA poetry award
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December 21, 2004: Headlines: COS - Estonia: Writing - Estonia: Poetry: Awards: Alameda Times-Star: Estonia RPCV John Isles wins coveted NEA poetry award
Estonia RPCV John Isles wins coveted NEA poetry award
Estonia RPCV John Isles wins coveted NEA poetry award
Alameda poet John Isles wins coveted NEA award
Grant will enable 42-year-old to write full-time in summer
By Susan McDonough, STAFF WRITER
ALAMEDA -- If ever there were a moment to occupy fully, it would be now for Alameda poet John Isles, who this month won a National Endowment for the Arts grant.
Isles, 42, was awarded $20,000 from the NEA for a series of poems in his first book of poetry, "Ark," which, he said, reflects his struggle to avoid getting stuck in the past.
The slim volume of poems is thick with images of Long Island, where Isles grew up in a working-class background with parents who, he said, valued hard work over the dreamy purview of poetry.
Indeed, Isles' journey to his current station as poet and teacher has been circuitous.
He didn't begin writing until his late 20s while stationed in Estonia in the Peace Corps, he said. And he continues to work as a high school English teacher in Union City to pay the bills.
"I was more of a closet writer," Isles said. Writing, he said, "didn't seem like a very realistic thing to do."
"Ark," published in 2003 by the University of Iowa Press was new territory for Isles.
"The book was already a big thing," he said. "The grant is something that augments the book."
Isles was one of 45 writers around the country to receive a Literature Fel- lowship in Poetry this year from the NEA, and one of only four Californians.
More than 1,590 writers applied for the award, which, according to the NEA, encourages the production of new work and provides writers the time and means to write.
The poetry fellowship represents the NEA's most direct investment in American creativity, said NEA spokeswoman Sally Gifford.
Established by Congress in 1965, the NEA will award artists and organizations more than $21 million this year through 839 grants.
The grant will allow Isles, who lives in Alameda with his wife and newborn, to take the summer off to write, he said. He usually teaches summer school.
"School really competes with my time to write ... For me, the real job is poetry," he said.
When this story was posted in December 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| Our debt to Bill Moyers Former Peace Corps Deputy Director Bill Moyers leaves PBS next week to begin writing his memoir of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Read what Moyers says about journalism under fire, the value of a free press, and the yearning for democracy. "We have got to nurture the spirit of independent journalism in this country," he warns, "or we'll not save capitalism from its own excesses, and we'll not save democracy from its own inertia." |
| Is Gaddi Leaving? Rumors are swirling that Peace Corps Director Vasquez may be leaving the administration. We think Director Vasquez has been doing a good job and if he decides to stay to the end of the administration, he could possibly have the same sort of impact as a Loret Ruppe Miller. If Vasquez has decided to leave, then Bob Taft, Peter McPherson, Chris Shays, or Jody Olsen would be good candidates to run the agency. Latest: For the record, Peace Corps has no comment on the rumors. |
| The Birth of the Peace Corps UMBC's Shriver Center and the Maryland Returned Volunteers hosted Scott Stossel, biographer of Sargent Shriver, who spoke on the Birth of the Peace Corps. This is the second annual Peace Corps History series - last year's speaker was Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn. |
| Charges possible in 1976 PCV slaying Congressman Norm Dicks has asked the U.S. attorney in Seattle to consider pursuing charges against Dennis Priven, the man accused of killing Peace Corps Volunteer Deborah Gardner on the South Pacific island of Tonga 28 years ago. Background on this story here and here. |
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Story Source: Alameda Times-Star
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Estonia; Writing - Estonia; Poetry; Awards
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