Money for the Muse

The North Carolina Arts Council announced the five winners of the $10,000 prose fellowships for this fiscal year out of 190 submissions as follows:
* Erica Berkeley (Chatham County)
* Bethany Chaney (Orange County)
* Brian Crocker (Guilford County)
* Laura Hope-Gill (Buncombe County)
* Sherry Shaw (Gaston County)

Congratulations to y'all. Hopefully, we'll see their verbs and nouns paint literary paintings in future works. The next grant round deadline is November 1, 2008. (Note: the web page hasn't been updated to reflect that.) Maybe my turn will come in the 2009-2010 fiscal year. Until then, I'll keep the victory garden growing and search for my muse in the eyes of the potatoes.