Grand Valley poet receives NEA Literature Fellowship

ALLENDALE, Mich. -- William Notter, a visiting writer at Grand Valley State University, recently received a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. The fellowships alternate annually between poetry and prose. For 2009, Notter is one of 41 poets to receive fellowships, which include $25,000 to encourage focusing on creativity and the production of new work.

Notter has taught introductory level writing classes at Grand Valley and gave a reading in the university’s 2008 Writers Series. His book, “Holding Everything Down,” received the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award, and will be published in fall 2009. Much of his poetry is a testimony to the rural landscapes of his youth in Colorado, and how it affects people. Dramatic monologues by laborers are a frequent voice.

“It wasn’t until I left home, to attend the University of Evansville in Indiana as an undergrad, that I realized how much I missed my local landscape,” said Notter. “Actually, I became more aware of it on the 18-hour drives home, when, about 40 miles from my destination, I’d relax into the bluffs and river alongside the highway.”

With his bachelor’s of arts degree in hand, Notter moved to Oxford, Miss., hoping to work in a bookstore there, while writing poetry. That job fell through, though he found another – digging fence post holes for the famed author John Grisham. He still chuckles over the irony of it. Notter went on to earn a MFA from the University of Arkansas.

Over the years Notter has traveled and lived throughout the West, Midwest and South, paying attention to the landscape of each and the names of indigenous plants and trees. Many have found their way into his poetry, which has appeared on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, and in journals such as Alaska Quarterly, The Midwest Quarterly and Southern Poetry Review. He was awarded the Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize from Texas Review Press for “More Space Than Anyone Can Stand,” and has also received grants from the Nevada Arts Council and Sierra Arts Foundation.

Grand Valley State University is the comprehensive regional university for Michigan's second largest metropolitan area and offers 71 undergraduate and 26 graduate degree programs. It has campuses in Allendale, Grand Rapids, and Holland and centers in Muskegon and Traverse City. Grand Valley attracts more than 23,000 students with high quality programs and state-of-the-art facilities.