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2015 IAF Winner, Jan LaPerle

By: Grace Robinson

Individual Artist Fellowship, Literary Arts

DSC_2452Whimsical writer Jan LaPerle has worked in poetry, fiction and verse. She writes to feel and to understand, to celebrate and to discover. Her creative process includes reflection on her current life events, interwoven with the everyday demands of motherhood and participation in the professional sphere. LaPerle’s recent works are inspired by the fears and joys of motherhood, as found in her most current book A Pretty Place To Mourn. The five women who’s lives this story, written in verse, follows are the incarnation and development of these fears.LaPerle received her BA in English and MFA in creative writing from Southern Illinois University and is now an English professor at Tusculum College. She looks forward to using her fellowship award to promote her newest book through a series of live readings throughout Tennessee and surrounding states.The Individual Artist Fellowship awards professional artists who have exhibited excellence in their discipline of choice. For more information, click here.

2015 Winners
Performing Arts: Allen Brown Davidson IIIKeri Pagetta and Kelly Nicole Bond
Literary Arts: Amy Michele WrightJan LaPerle and Todd Dills
Craft: Bryce Brisco and Laurel Jean Sprague
Media: Gregory Sand and Melissa Anderson Sweazy
Visual Arts: James Wallace Buchman and Montana Coll Torrey