Category: Grantee Stories

William Alexander’s books take middle-grade readers to extraordinary worlds—goblin kingdoms, intergalactic spaceships, and, in his next book, floating castles off the Cuban coast. Tentatively titled The Ingenious Towers, the fantasy novel-in-progress has earned Alexander an FY2021 Creation Grant. The story follows three Cuban-American siblings as they pursue a… Read More

For Sarah Audsley, to be a rural poet is to “claim belonging in a rural landscape.” While the average American may not associate a Korean American woman with the phrase “rural poet,” that sense of belonging has always been natural to Audsley. Raised in Woodstock, VT,… Read More

During the Covid-19 pandemic, artists everywhere are discovering that the viability of their creative business depends on delivering their work digitally. In early August, the Council announced a special round of Artist Development Grants intended to help artists… Read More

Frances Cannon is living proof you don’t need a New York agent to make a life in books. I first crossed paths with Frances in 2014, when I published a poem of hers in the first issue of Mount Island, my independent literary magazine. Her first poetry collection,… Read More

Step outside—into the yard or street, or the parking lot—and take note of as many boundaries as you can: where the grass meets the road, where private becomes public, where the radio station turns to static. This is what composer and educator Otto Muller has been doing to prepare… Read More

Andy Warhol prescribed: “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” Easier said than done. But, Vermont's creative undercurrent remains powerful. Constant output brings art to the surface—to our venues and landscapes—over and over. The Council's Creation Grant cycle rides this wave. As the application opens again in January, the works of last year's grantees are being formed. The art of two grant rounds past has come into being, and is highlighted here, through the words of the artists. Read More