Individual Artist Project Grant

Once the writer Linda Hogan told me that whatever one writes about makes it stronger. I believe that is true. Attention to our place in the world and the dynamics of our relationships benefit the writers and the community. Literature offers insight, whether reading or writing. The Iron Range and northern Minnesota region have a unique culture and a unique landscape that is undergoing change. On the Iron Range, mining operations alter the continental divide. Communities are built and then are moved when the minerals are excavated. Roads appear and later are removed. Maps change. Excavations become mine pits; mine pits become bodies of water. Mine dumps become hills until scram mining operations make them disappear. I want to ground my stories in this place of metamorphosis. Goal: Broaden my writing skills with prose. Explore the short story form as a vehicle to examine characters, events, and the impact of the landscape in the northern Minnesota region. Strengthen my fiction-writing skills such as character development: point of view, motivation, dialogue, and other aspects. Explore changes in individuals and communities by engaging my artistic skills. Outcome: I will create a book of short stories connected to the Iron Range and northern Minnesota landscape, ready for publication. I received an Arts and Cultural Heritage Community Arts Learning Grant, 2010-2011, to provide writing workshops in the community, particularly addressing the needs women who have experienced domestic abuse. I conducted over 40 writing workshops in the community and at the Women's Shelter and the Family Justice Center which was far above my plan. In the end, I collected the work of 75 participants and published it in the anthology Migrations. In the process, I learned a lot. This particular proposal to write a book of short stories requires me is to generate new material and do revisions. I have established a strong writing practice and am able to set and meet deadlines. The manuscript consult will require that I submit the short stories to an editor for an editing session online or in person. The reading and workshop are public events but also help me articulate my own learning. I chose to designate a full year to complete this project which I think is reasonable. I will use the following items for evaluating success: 1. a completed short story manuscript based on characters and events based in northern Minnesota and the Iron Range. The manuscript will be 150-200 pages. 2. a manuscript consultation with a writer whose expertise is with short stories. The feedback will be incorporated into revisions. 3. a public reading that features one of the stories. (As a poet, I've learned the value of sharing work with the public. Nothing else spurs revision before and during a public event. The reaction, even the breathing, of the audience is valuable feedback). 4. a workshop for writers that focuses on the short story as a literary form and the use of northern Minnesota landscape as a setting for stories.