Adrian Matejka, Ruth Lilly professor and poet-in-residence of the IU College of Arts and Sciences, was selected by United States Artists as the 2015 Simon Fellow in Literature.
According to its website, United States Artists “celebrates the breadth of American artistic practices” by awarding selected artists $50,000 fellowships each year. This was one of 36 fellowships awarded by the organization this year.
Matejka said the funding awarded to him by the organization will help him complete his new poetry project, a poetry collection titled “Collectible Blacks” to be published in April 2017, according to a press release.
“It also allows me the financial security to pursue some of the more adventurous projects I’ve wanted to explore — a graphic novel about rap music in the mid-1980s and a nonfiction poetry/graphic project about fatherhood,” Matejka said in the release. “I’m so grateful for the support of United States Artists and for their mission of supporting innovation in the arts.”
Matejka was born in Nuremberg, Germany, according to the press release. He grew up in California and Indiana and graduated from IU in 1955 with a double major in English and psychology.
He returned to teach in Bloomington in 2012 with an MFA degree from Southern Illinois University under his belt.
Matejka has authored many award-winning poetry collections, including “The Devil’s Garden,” “Mixology” and his most recent collection, “The Big Smoke.”
According to the release, Matejka’s “The Big Smoke” was awarded the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Prize, selected as a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize and shortlisted for the 2013 National Book Award.
His work has appeared in American Poetry Review and the Best American Poetry 2010 among other journals and anthologies, according to the release.
Matejka said he was honored to be awarded the fellowship by United States Artists, which he said provides valuable resources to artists beyond him.
“The United States Artists fellowship is so valuable — for me, of course, but also for all of the artists working in the nine disciplines the fellowships fund,” Matejka said in the release. “USA was founded in response to the absence of funding for working artists, so the fellowships are both practical and incredibly necessary. There is some vanguard work happening across disciplines right now as a result of the United States Artists.”
Bridget Murray
