A reminder that ARC’s 2021 Poetry Fellowship application is due this Sunday, November 15th at 11:59pm PST! To apply, please click here.
UC Berkeley’s Arts Research Center (ARC) is spending two years exploring Poetry and the Senses, thanks to a generous grant from the Engaging the Senses Foundation. The program is grounded in the relevance and urgency of lyrical making and storytelling in times of political crisis, and the value of engaging the senses as an act of care, mindfulness, and resistance. We support poetry in its broadest definition; our fellows have had connections with English and Comparative Literature; Theater, Dance and Performance Studies; Art Practice; Berkeley Center for New Media; Global Urban Humanities; Native American Studies; Spanish & Portuguese; Music; and Near Eastern Studies departments at UC Berkeley. Amplifying under-represented voices is part of ARC’s bigger mission. To learn more about the program, click here.
Modeled on the pre-existing ARC Fellows Program, the core of the grant funds horizontal working groups that bring together UC Berkeley faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, and local community poets. Each group will convene over a semester to share creative work, research, discussion, and critique, organized around a wide-ranging theme. Students are able to earn 1 credit for participation if desired.
The application portal is now open for the spring 2021 fellowship, January – May 2021. Eight fellows will be chosen, two in each category of faculty, grad, undergrad, and community poet. Each fellow will receive a $3,000 stipend for the semester.
Fellows will:
- Meet twice a month with the fellows working group to share work
- Participate in any projects the group decides on collectively
- Write 500 word blog post to be published on the ARC Blog
- Participate in one reading (individual, or with the larger group, online)
- Meet with Poetry and the Senses visiting writers
- Have their work showcased in a chapbook
For spring 2021, we will continue with our theme of emerge/ncy. What kinds of poetic modes of address might be recruited in times of global catastrophe? How does poetry help us think through and within crisis? “Emergency” implies urgency, sudden harm, life-threatening violence, and extreme circumstances, but embedded within it is the word “emergence;” suggesting rebirth and new beginnings. How can we understand moments of emergency as catalysts for renewal, as ruptures that signal massive—if painful—change?
To apply, please click here. You will be required to fill in a short online application and submit 1) a CV/resume, and 2) up to 4 poems or samples of creative writing (no more than 6 pgs) OR 1 scholarly writing sample (no more than 12 pgs). There is space for you to share a website URL showcasing your work in other media.
Applications close Sunday, November 15 at 11:59pm pacific standard time.
Please note: See FAQs for more info. The online application is a Google Form. If you do not have a Google Account, please email Laurie Macfee at macfee@berkeley.edu for further instructions.