Grants

The Lesbian Writers Fund provides grants to emerging lesbian poets and fiction writers across the U.S. Grants are determined by a panel of judges. This year, the Fund awarded a total of $26,600 to 12 women whose work shows extraordinary promise in the arenas of fiction and poetry. A portion of these awards was made possible by Skip's Sappho Fund at Astraea. Each year, awards are made from the Lesbian Writers Fund and the Lesbian Visual Arts Fund to artists located west of the Mississippi in posthumous honor of Skip Neal, a lesbian artist and Astraea supporter.

Fiction

Pamela Shepherd (Taos, NM) received her M.F.A. in Creative and BA in Philosophy from University of Washington. In 1990, she was the Fiction Winner for Poets & Writers Writers Exchange Contest, and in 1997 became founder and Executive Director of the Bridges Project for Education, a nonprofit helping to send low-income students to college.  $10,000

Linda Heal (Salon, IA) is working toward an MFA in creative nonfiction at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. She currently works as a sportswriter, textbook editor, and outdoor educator.   $1,500

Claudia Rodriguez (Compton, CA) received her B.A. from UCLA and is an M.F.A. student at the California Institute of the Arts. She is working on a collection of stories for young adults and her first novel.  $1,500

Honorable Mention
Judy Doenges (Fort Collins, CO) $100
Lynette D'Amico (Minneapolis, MN) $100
Chimyere D. Love (Los Angeles, CA)  $100

Poetry

R. Erica Doyle (Rosedale, NY) is a writer, teacher and performer of Trinidadian descent born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1968. She studied Spanish language and literature at Georgetown University and received her M.F.A. in poetry from the New School in New York City. $10,000

Veronica Reyes (El Paso, TX) is a poet hiding in the Brown Desert that shrouds la frontera of El Paso. This Chicana feminist dyke from East L.A. is now an adjunct faculty member in the English department at El Paso Community College and the University of Texas at El Paso. $1,500

Kelly Sterns (Albuquerque, NM) is the founder of Dial-A-Poem, New Mexico's 24- hour recorded poetry line. She teaches poetry in New Mexico, working with youth and underserved populations. $1,500

Honorable Mention
Teya Schaffer (Oakland, CA) $100
Anne-Marie Cusac (Madison, WI) $100
Ingrid Rivera-Dessuit (Brooklyn, NY) $100