A University of Memphis professor recently won a 2021 Creative Writing Fellowship that includes an award of $25,000.
Poet Marcus Wicker is an associate professor at the U of M. Wicker is one of 35 writers out of over 1,600 to earn this award through the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
Wicker teaches English in the Master’s of Fine Arts program at the U of M. In addition to his work there, Wicker is poetry editor for the Southern Indiana Review.
“Poetry helps me discover, articulate, and clarify ideas I feel instinctively but can’t make sense of otherwise,” Wicker says. “A good deal of my poems use humor and music as a lens to explore the self and issues of social import, especially those pertaining to the African-American community.”
“I love reading work that moves me to catharsis during trying times, and before anything else, I’m just aiming to write the kind of poems I’d like to see floating around in the world.”
Courtesy Marcus Wicker
Wicker
Since 1967, the Arts Endowment has awarded more than 3,600 Creative Writing Fellowships totaling over $56 million. The fellowships for 2021 are in poetry and give award recipients the opportunity to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support these 35 talented poets through Creative Writing Fellowships,” says Amy Stolls, director of literary arts at the Arts Endowment. “These fellowships often provide writers with crucial support and encouragement, and in return, our nation is enriched by their artistic contributions in the years to come.”
Wicker is the author of Silencer and Maybe the Saddest Thing. He has garnered a slew of accomplishments in the writing community, including winning a Tennessee Arts Fellowship. His poems have appeared in The Nation, The New Republic, The Atlantic, Poetry, American Poetry Review, and many other publications.
“Writing can be a pretty solitary pursuit,” Wicker said. “Recognition from the NEA is a humbling vote of confidence that affirms my life’s work.”