ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1996 TAG: 9601040017
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Author Ed Falco has won a $5,000 Artist Fellowship from the Virginia Commission for the Arts for time off from teaching to start a new short-story collection.
Falco, of Blacksburg, is an associate professor of English at Virginia Tech, and usually teaches a six-week summer course in May and June that requires "pretty heavy preparation," he said. The grant will allow him to take time off from teaching that course and spend it on writing.
The grant is one of 19, ranging from $3,000 to $5,000, awarded to Virginia writers of fiction and poetry. They were chosen from 200 grant applications, submitted by 112 fiction writers and 88 poets.
Falco was the only artist chosen by the commission west of Roanoke. A $4,000 award went to Rita Ciresi of Roanoke, an assistant professor in the creative-writing program at Hollins College. Ciresi will also use her grant to take time off from teaching, to complete a novel manuscript and finish a collection of linked stories about a mother and daughter.
The commission's Individual Artist Fellowship program is aimed at encouraging significant development by individual artists of merit, supporting the realization of specific artistic ideas, and recognizing the contribution made by professional artists to the state's creative environment.
Each year, fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis in a single discipline. Next year, the competition will be among visual artists.
This is not the first time Falco's work has been recognized with a grant. He received an Individual Artist Project grant from the commission for the 1991-92 year. In 1991, he won a $1,000 Governor's Screenwriting award at the Virginia Festival of American Film in Charlottesville.
The screenplay was based on his 1990 novel, "Winter in Florida." He also published a 12-story collection that year, "Plato at Scratch Daniel's and Other Stories." Both drew positive reviews.
He has a 13-story collection titled "Acid" being published in February by the University of Notre Dame Press, and advance reviews for it have also been good. It won the university's 1995 Richard Sullivan Prize for a short-story collection.
One of its stories, "The Artist," was published in The Atlantic Monthly and was selected as a 1995 Best American Short Story. An option on it for a potential screenplay has been purchased. But Falco said he has found that movie deals are uncertain at best, so he is not holding his breath awaiting a contract.
"I write every morning," Falco said, having arranged his teaching schedule so his classes begin later in the day. For six weeks in May and June, thanks to the grant, that daily schedule will be considerably expanded.
Falco anticipates that he might complete one or two short stories for that next collection during those weeks.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Falco.by CNB