The Jeanne Córdova Words Scholarship
The
Jeanne Córdova Words Scholarship, in memory of the beloved activist and
author who passed away in January 2016, is given annually in
conjunction with Lambda's Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices. The
scholarship is awarded to a lesbian of color or lesbian-identified
queer or trans woman of color, working on text with lesbian content in
any of the workshop categories excluding poetry.
The
2018 winner of The Jeanne Córdova Words Scholarship is New York-based
writer Mariam Bazeed, who will join the nonfiction workshop led by
Benoit Denizet-Lewis. The judges chose to award Mariam Bazeed the 2018
Cordova scholarship for her unique voice.
Lynn
Ballen, Jeanne Córdova's spouse, noted that "Jeanne's own experience as
a participant at the first Lambda Emerging Writers Retreat in 2007
helped her to complete a Lammy-award winning memoir, When We Were Outlaws, and inspired her to create this scholarship to support future community storytellers."
The
scholarship includes the Retreat tuition, room and board fees plus
transportation costs, up to a total of $2,500. Each year's Scholarship
awardee are selected by the Córdova Words Scholarship Committee, from a
list of writers accepted to the Retreat who meet the scholarship
criteria.
The Justin Chin Memorial Scholarship
Sponsored
by Alexander Chee and Christine Lee, The Justin Chin Memorial
Scholarship is offered in memory of the late author Justin Chin, and
supports a queer, Asian American Pacific Islander writer, writing queer
content in any of the genres offered at the Lambda Literary Retreat for
LGBTQ Voices.
The 2018 winner of the Justin Chin Memorial Scholarship writer Ricco
Villanueva Siasoco, who will join the fiction workshop led by Chinelo Okparanta.
On Siasoco's work, Alexander Chee and Christine Lee said,
There
are [writings] you come across that you immediately want to publish, or
that you wish you'd written, or that make you wish for more writing
from the author--- to see if they have a book, or the entire arsenal of their literary canon. Ricco Siasoco's Dandy is that--- and from his transformation of the theme of Dante's Inferno
and the implications of punishment, to the flawed first person narrator
and protagonist, Siasoco shows a command of craft and emotional depth
in Dandy's writing, creating a risk-taking piece that will stay
with you a long time, if not forever. This made him our clear choice for
the first Justin Chin fellowship, and we cannot wait to see what he'll
do next.
The scholarship covers the Retreat tuition fees.
Lili Elbe Scholarship
Honoring
the life and legacy of transgender pioneer Lili Elbe, the Lili Elbe
Scholarship recognizes a trans Lambda Literary Fellow in any genre whose
work shows considerable talent and promise. A Danish trans woman, Lili
Elbe was one of the earliest recipients of gender confirmation surgery.
The 2018 winner of the Lili Elbe scholarship is Wryly McCutchen, a poetry fellow working with faculty member Ryka Aoki.
The scholarship is sponsored by David Ebershoff, whose first novel about Elbe, The Danish Girl, won the Lambda Literary Award for transgender fiction and was recently adapted into an Oscar-winning film.
"Wryly
McCuthen's unique voice, their courage, and their resilient spirit make
them a wonderful recipient of the first Lili Elbe scholarship," said
sponsoring author David Ebershoff.
The scholarship covers the Retreat tuition, room and board fees plus transportation costs, up to a total of $2000.
Scholarship Winner Biographies
Mariam Bazeed is
a non-binary Egyptian immigrant living in a rent-stabilized apartment
in Brooklyn. She has an MFA in Fiction from Hunter College. In addition
to being a writer of prose, poetry, plays, and personal essays, Mariam
is a singer and performance artist. She is a current fellow at the
Center for Fiction and has received fellowships from the Asian American
Writers Workshop, the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics
at NYU, and Lambda Literary. She has been awarded residencies at the
Marble House Project, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, and Hedgebrook.
Mariam runs a monthly world-music salon in Brooklyn, and is a slow
student of Arabic music.
Ricco Villanueva Siasoco has published in AGNI, Joyland, Post Road, The North American Review, and
numerous anthologies. In 2013, he was selected asa NYC Emerging Writer
Fellow from The Center for Fiction. Ricco received his MFA from
Bennington College and has taught at
Columbia University, Boston College, and the Ethical Culture Fieldston
School. He works at the Chadwick School in Los Angeles and serves as a
board member for Kundiman, a literary nonprofit dedicated to writers and
readers of Asian American literature. Ricco's short story collection, The Foley Artist, is forthcoming from Gaudy Boy in 2019.
Wryly T. McCutchen is
a poet, hybrid writer, and community educator teaching, writing, and
surviving in the Pacific Northwest. Their poetry and nonfiction has
appeared in Foglifter, Lady/Liberty/Lit, Tiferet Journal, Wilde Magazine, Alive With Vigor, and Raven Chronicles.
They were awarded an MFA in creative writing with dual concentration in
creative nonfiction and poetry from Antioch University. Their first
poetry manuscript, My Ugly and Other Love Snarls, is available from University of Hell Press. Their first memoir is in progress.