FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Sara Nicholson and Rachael Price, both doctoral students in the Department of English at the University of Arkansas, are the recipients of 2015 Fulbright Dissertation Research Awards.

The $5,000 grants are annually presented to two Ph.D. students in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Nicholson and Price will both use their awards to travel to archives to conduct research.

Nicholson’s dissertation focuses on the relationship between 20th century American poetry and medievalism. The poets in her dissertation include Jack Spicer, Laura Riding, Robert Duncan, Mary Butts, Robin Blaser and Thomas Meyer.

Sara Nicholson

“This award will allow me to travel to the libraries of the University of California, Berkeley, and State University of New York at Buffalo,” Nicholson said. “A lot of the material I’ll be working with is unpublished, and without this award I would not be able to access it.”

Nicholson’s first book of poetry, The Living Method, was published in 2014 by The Song Cave.

Rachael Price

Price’s dissertation, “Beyond Main Street: Small Towns in Post-‘Revolt’ American Literature,” examines the impact and legacy of the literary movement that U.S. critic and Carl Van Doren referred to as the “revolt from the village.”

Price will use her dissertation research award to travel to access the Henry and Katharine Bellamann papers at the University of Mississippi.

“One of the chapters in my dissertation focuses on the 1940 bestseller Kings Row, by Henry Bellamann. But Kings Row is now out of print and largely forgotten,” Price said. “The Bellamann Collection contains annotated drafts of all of Bellamann’s novels, including several early versions of Kings Row. It also features numerous letters to and from both Henry Bellamann and his wife Katharine, many on the subject of Kings Row.”