Professor Robert Arellano Receives 2014 Oregon Literary Fellowship
Literary Arts announced this week that Southern Oregon University Professor Robert Arellano is the recipient of a 2014 Oregon Literary Fellowship. “Oregonians are passionate about books,” reads the announcement of the awards, sponsored by the Oregon Arts Commission and Oregon Cultural Trust. “And ideas, and great writing. Our mission is to engage readers, support writers, and inspire the next generation with great literature.”
Arellano, the author of six novels including the Edgar Award-finalist Havana Lunar (Akashic Books, 2009), will hold the Leslie Bradshaw Fellowship in fiction for 2014. “I’m blown away,” says Arellano. “Four years after moving here with my family, it’s really just hitting me as an author: Oregon embraces me.”
Last year, together with fellow Creative Writing professors Kasey Mohammad and Craig Wright, Arellano founded the Institute of New Writing \ Ashland at Southern Oregon University. “A lot of people love visiting the Rogue Valley for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival or for outdoor adventuring. Craig, Casey and I want to put SOU on the map as the Northwest destination for literary inspiration.”
Arellano and seven other 2014 Oregon Literary Fellowship honorees will engage with Oregonians this year at events across the state, beginning with the 27th annual Oregon Book Awards in Portland later this winter. But Arellano says his real second passion is teaching: “My online course for SOU right now is called Writing the Novel, and it’s packed with students who log on from Seattle to San Diego: 30 authors, ages 18 to 60-something, mastering the art of storytelling.”
Southern Oregon University provides outstanding student experiences, valued degrees, and successful graduates. SOU is known for excellence in faculty, intellectual creativity and rigor, quality and innovation in connected learning programs, and the educational benefits of its unique geographic location. SOU was the first university in Oregon—and one of the first in the nation—to offset 100 percent of its energy use with clean, renewable power, and it is the first university in the nation to balance 100% of its water consumption. Visit sou.edu.
About Literary Arts
Oregonians are passionate about books. And ideas, and great writing. Literary Arts shares this passion. Our mission is to engage readers, support writers, and inspire the next generation with great literature. The programs of Literary Arts include: Writers in the Schools, Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships, Portland Arts & Lectures, and Delve: Readers’ Seminars.
For more information about the programs of Literary Arts please contact 503.227.2583 or visit literary-arts.org.
About the Oregon Arts Commission and Oregon Cultural Trust
The Commission offers a variety of matching grants to support arts programming in Oregon. Grant programs are supported with general funds from the State of Oregon and the Oregon Cultural Trust, and federal dollars from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additionally, the Commission shares its grant-making resources with the Oregon Cultural Trust to provide a more efficient and cost effective process for both organizations.
The Cultural Trust is a statewide cultural plan to raise significant new funds for Oregon’s arts, humanities and heritage. Funds are distributed to local communities to support cultural priorities, through competitive grants for projects of regional and statewide significance, and through grants to Oregon’s statewide cultural agencies to support their ongoing efforts.
Photos of Robert Arellano by Ezra Marcos