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Teacher wins prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship
Creative Writing instructor George Singleton claims 2009 award for $40,000
GREENVILLE, SC - George Singleton, a Creative Writing instructor at the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities was selected Tuesday to receive a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York.
As a Guggenheim Fellow, Singleton will receive a $40,000 grant to work on his forthcoming fiction novel, Side Notes for a New Grudge, during the fall 2009 school semester. The Foundation awards annual grants to men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.
The Foundation receives between 3,500 and 4,000 applications each year. Approximately 220 Fellowships are awarded annually.
"I'm floored," Singleton said. The award places him among notable past recipients, such as writers Joyce Carol Oates and John Updike. "It's very heady company," he said.
Singleton teaches Fiction and Creative Nonfiction to junior and senior Creative Writing students at the Governor's School, a public residential high school for emerging artists statewide.
His colleagues joined him in celebrating the news.
"What a remarkable accomplishment and accolade for George Singleton to be selected as a Guggenheim Fellow," said Dr. Bruce Halverson, Governor's School President. "The entire Governor's School family applauds his success and celebrates this prestigious recognition of his artistry."
"It's great for George. It's great for our school. And maybe most important, it's great for our students," said Scott Gould, Creative Writing Department Chair. "I don't know of another group of high school writers in the country that has a Guggenheim Fellow for a teacher. That's pretty impressive, I think."
Singleton is the author of:
- Four collections of short stories: These People Are Us (2001), The Half-Mammals of Dixie (2002), Why Dogs Chase Cars (2004), and Drowning in Gruel (2006);
- Three published novels: Novel (2005), Work Shirts for Madmen (2007), and Pep Talks, Warnings & Screeds: Indispensable Wisdom and Cautionary Advice for Writers (2008) and,
- More than 100 stories published in magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Playboy, Book, Zoetrope, Glimmer Train, Georgia Review, Shenandoah, Southern Review, and North American Review.
Additionally, Singleton's stories have been anthologized in eight editions of New Stories from the South, plus Writers Harvest 2, A Dixie Christmas, They Write Among Us, 20 Over 40, and Behind the Short Story: from First to Final Draft. His nonfiction has appeared in the Oxford American, esquire.com, Best Food Writing 2005, Dog Is My Co-Pilot, and Paste.
Guggenheim Fellowships are made for a minimum of six months and a maximum of one year and the amount of grants vary. Since the purpose of the Guggenheim Fellowship program is to help provide Fellows with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible, grants are made freely. Fellows may spend their grant funds in any manner they deem necessary to their work.
Singleton's is a nine month award, beginning in August 2009. He said however, he will return to teaching at the Governor's School in January 2010.
"I enjoy teaching South Carolina's emerging artists for purely selfish reasons. I want them to leave here, further their educations, then return to the state," Singleton said. "When our graduates come back, that will certainly impact our populace in positive ways."
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