Ucross Foundation, the respected artist‑in‑residence program located in the high plains of northeastern Wyoming, announced on September 9 that award‑winning writer Rebecca Solnit will be the inaugural fellow of the Barry Lopez Foundation Writing Fellowship.
Fellowship details
The fellowship, granted once a year, provides a mid‑career American author or essayist with uninterrupted time to work on a creative project that reflects the late nature writer Barry Lopez’s call for an ethical relationship with the planet. Solnit’s two‑week stay at Ucross includes a private studio, living accommodations, meals prepared by a professional chef, and the experience of the expansive High Plains. An honorarium of $5,000 is also part of the award.
Solnit’s response
“Barry Lopez taught me to write in how his books modeled wonder, exploration, the way that a book could, like a traveler, roam across vast spaces, candor, the relationship between the deepest inner life and the broadest expanses between the spiritual and the natural,” Solnit said. “I’m honored to have this fellowship in his name, and I’m excited to go be in the prairie (and coal country) of Northeast Wyoming.”
Support from Ucross and the Barry Lopez Foundation
Ucross President and Executive Director Caitlin Addlesperger said the organization is “thrilled to join forces with the Barry Lopez Foundation for Art & Environment to support writers who are helping us navigate these complex matters.” Toby Jurovics, director of the Barry Lopez Foundation, added, “What strikes me about her writing is its complexity and clarity—so much happens on every page, yet there is never a question about what she means or where she stands. Writing with an immediacy fitting our difficult times, her work is a beacon for those of us who have not given up hope for a more promising future and reflects Barry Lopez’s own expansive enthusiasm for the world.”
About Rebecca Solnit
Solnit is the author of more than 25 books, including *Orwell’s Roses*, *Hope in the Dark*, *Men Explain Things to Me*, *A Field Guide to Getting Lost*, and the recent *The Beginning Comes After the End*. She contributes regularly to The Guardian, writes the newsletter “Meditations in an Emergency,” and serves on the boards of Oil Change International and Third Act.
Barry Lopez Foundation mission
The Barry Lopez Foundation for Art & Environment sponsors fine‑art exhibitions and creative fellowships across literature, visual arts, and music that address climate change, biodiversity loss, habitat degradation, and the evolving human relationship with the planet. The foundation believes the arts can help guide decisions about the future, sustain a connection to the natural world, and inspire an ethical relationship with the land.
Ucross legacy
Since its first residencies were awarded in 1983, Ucross has hosted more than 3,000 artists. Notable past fellows include Annie Proulx, Terry Tempest Williams, Elizabeth Gilbert, Ann Patchett, Bill Morrison, Theaster Gates, Anthony Hernandez, Tayari Jones, Suleika Jaouad, Susan Choi, Sigrid Nunez, Sarah M. Broom, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Billy Porter, Colson Whitehead, Tessa Hulls, and former three‑term U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.
Original reporting: Sheridan Media (Sheridan WY) — read the source article.
