![]() For me, the support of the NEA at this point in my career may not mean that I have finally created something recognizable. And so, I have applied to the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in prose years and in poetry years. For that reason, I’ve stopped expecting my work to show up on standard lists or to win annual awards that lift up an exemplary work in a particular literary category. ![]() ![]() My work as a writer so far has been instead to remind my communities how familiar they are with the unrecognizable. And I know that when your work transforms form you can’t expect recognition. All of the books I have written so far defy genre. Mentors, colleagues, even marketing professionals struggle to categorize my work. Jacqui Alexander told me, laughing on the phone after reading a manuscript I sent her inspired by her own body of work. ![]() “Whoever said you were from another planet was right,” my mentor M. ![]()
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