BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University’s Assistant Professor of English Joanne Diaz has been awarded a $25,000 fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) for her poetry.
Diaz is one of only 42 writers across the nation receiving the NEA Literature Fellowships for 2009. The NEA calls the fellowships “the most direct investment in American creativity.” NEA Chairman Dana Gioia said, “These grants are an investment in our nation’s culture, and I’m proud to say that the return on that investment benefits Americans from coast to coast.”
Joining the Illinois Wesleyan English Department in 2008, Diaz teaches courses in creative writing and literature.