This summer marked the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a turning point in the history of disability rights. During her years of writing, art, design, and research, Sara Hendren (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow '18) has found the field of disability studies a rich and deep world to explore. "And in the course of all of those years of both writing … [Read more...]
20th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards
Last week, the Massachusetts Center for the Book announced the selections of the 20th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards. The Awards recognize achievement in five categories of literature written by current residents of the Commonwealth. Congratulations to all of the awardees and honorees. In particular, we are pleased that the list includes several past Mass Cultural Council … [Read more...]
Announcing Awards in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, and Painting
Mass Cultural Council is honored to announce the 2020 Artist Fellowship awards in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, and Painting. The awards include 18 fellowships of $15,000, and 16 finalist awards of $1,500. See a list of this year's fellows and finalists, to date. The awards are anonymously judged, based solely on the artistic quality and creative ability of the … [Read more...]
P. Carl: The Story of Becoming a Man
In a recent feature on WBUR's Radio Boston, P. Carl (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow '18) discussed why he wrote his new memoir, Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition. In part, it was because he didn't see trans stories like his being told, and "any time you're adding to the stories that are missing in our culture, that might be helpful somewhere down the line." It … [Read more...]
Lisa Gruenberg: My City of Dreams
In the early 2000s, a family crisis set physician Lisa Gruenberg on the unexpected path to being a writer. In 2012, she received a Mass Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in Fiction/Creative Nonfiction and in 2019, she published her memoir My City of Dreams. We asked her about the trajectory of that book, her journey as a writer, and other surprising turns in her life and … [Read more...]