Mid-America Arts Alliance has announced the recipients of the 2020 Artists 360 Awards. Two alumni of the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing and Translation in the Department of English have been awarded project grants, and two current graduate students have been awarded student grant awards. Their proposed projects focus on short fiction and podcasting/media.

Artists 360, a program of Mid-America Arts Alliance, made possible through the support of the Walton Family Foundation, is a three-year pilot program that provides grant funding and professional development opportunities to individual artists of all disciplines in the greater Northwest Arkansas area.

Grants include learning opportunities to develop entrepreneurial skills and build sustainable careers, creating a network of leading regional artists. 

M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing and Translation alumni recipients of project grants are: 

Joy Clark ('20), whose story collection Nothing But the Blood, "examines spirituality, belonging, and religious trauma in the rural south."

Vicente Yépez ('19), will produce Fútbol For The People, "a bilingual podcast/media channel that uses narrative and conversation to generate discussion about the ethics and politics of soccer."

M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing and Translation student grant award recipients are: 

Hiba Tahir and Emma VanDyke, third and fourth year poets, respectively. Tahir and VanDyke have been recognized by Artists 360 for their work in hybrid prose and poetry.