The Black Mountain Institute (BMI) at UNLV awarded Charles Bock, Kelle Groom, and Kris Saknussemm its literary arts fellowships through its Diana L. Bennett Fellows Program.
Each fellow in the nine-month writing program receives $50,000, an office, computer, and access to UNLV's Lied Library. The fellowships allow the writer to work in an uninterrupted environment, discuss their works in a public forum, and mentor students in UNLV's nationally recognized creative writing programs. They will start in the fall.
Charles Bock
Bock, born and raised in Las Vegas, was awarded BMI's Diana L. Bennett Fellowship. His first novel, "Beautiful Children," was centered on his hometown's diverse residents. It was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and received the 2009 Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The Nevada Writers Hall of Fame awarded Bock a Silver Pen Award in 2009. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at Bennington College and taught creative writing at the Gotham Writers' Workshop in New York City.
Kelle Groom
Groom was named the BMI-Kluge Fellow through a partnership with the Library of Congress. She has written three poetry collections as well as "I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl," a memoir detailing her tragic struggle with alcoholism and the loss of her infant son. Her work has appeared in several literary journals, including Witness, The New Yorker, Ploughshares, and Poetry. She received a Florida Book Award in 2006 and 2010. She taught writing at the University of Central Florida and acts as a contributing editor for The Florida Review.
Kris Saknussemm
Saknussemm, BMI's Tom and Mary Gallagher Fellow, is known for his signature satire and bizarre imagery. An Australian-American, Saknussem has published three novels and a short story collection. His first novel "Zanesville" is already regarded as a science fiction cult classic. His work has appeared in the Boston Review, the Hudson Review, the Antioch Review, New Letters, and Prairie Schooner. He attended Dartmouth College and received his Master of Arts degree from the University of Washington.
Since 2007, BMI has awarded 16 residential fellowships to creative writers, and this year garnered the most applications at 65. The fellowships go to exceptional writers who have published at least one highly acclaimed book before the application deadline.
For detailed biographies of the fellows, visit .
For more information, contact the Black Mountain Institute at (702) 895-5542 or e-mail blackmountaininstitute@unlv.edu.
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Founded in 2006, UNLV's Black Mountain Institute (BMI) is an international center for creative writers and scholars. The institute supports a series of initiatives that promote humanistic and cross-cultural dialogue, including public readings and panel discussions, degree programs in creative writing, fellowships for residential writing and faculty research, and literary publications.
