Bread Loaf Writers' Conference establishes international fellowship

MIDDLEBURY, Vt.-The Middlebury College Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference has established the Michael and Marylee Fairbanks International Fellowship. The annual fellowship will be awarded to an African or Caribbean writer, who will attend the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference beginning this year on Aug. 17-28. Poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction writers who have published at least one but not more than two books in English within the past four years are eligible to apply. The fellowship provides the conference fee as well as travel expenses.

The Fairbanks International Fellowship was established by Michael Fairbanks, co-founder of the Mass.-based OTF Group, a company that creates marketing and economic strategies for countries with developing and transitional economies. “The Fairbanks International Fellowship is the natural outgrowth of the OTF Group’s commitment to supporting and encouraging the widest range of activities that ensure the growth of nations and communities,” said Fairbanks.

For nearly 80 years, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference has been encouraging literary writing, primarily in the United States. According to Michael Collier, the conference’s director, the Fairbanks Fellowship will help to expand Bread Loaf’s mission. “It is a distinctive addition to the group of prestigious annual Bread Loaf Fellowships that have been awarded to emerging writers from the United States for more than eight decades,” said Collier. Past Bread Loaf Fellows include Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Theodore Roethke, May Swenson, Joan Didion, Tim O’Brien, Julia Alvarez and Carolyn Forche.

For complete guidelines and information, contact Noreen Cargill at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT 05753 or blwc@middlebury.edu. Guidelines and information are also available on the Middlebury College Web site at www.middlebury.edu/blwc.

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