UMaine Alumnae Awarded NEA Fellowships

Two alumnae of the University of Maine English Department’s Graduate Program have been awarded 2014 National Endowment for the Arts fellowships for creative writing.

Catherine Reid, chair of Warren Wilson College’s undergraduate creative writing program, and Josie Sigler Sibara, assistant professor of English and creative writing at the University of Rhode Island, both received $25,000 nonmatching grants.

A total of 38 creative writing fellowships were awarded nationwide. Grants are intended to give published writers time to write, research and travel. The review criteria are artistic excellence and artistic merit; the NEA received more than 1,300 eligible manuscripts to be judged for the 2014 awards..

Reid earned her master’s degree at UMaine in 1989. “O, The Oprah Magazine” listed her essay collection “Falling into Place” one of 14 Riveting Reads To Pick Up in March 2014.

Sibara earned her master’s degree at UMaine in 2002. Her collection of short stories “The Galaxie and Other Rides” won the Ruby Pickens Tartt First Fiction Award in 2012.