(Katonah, NY) Pam Hart, a published poet, and the Katonah Museum of Art’s writer-in-residence, has been awarded an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship. Hart was one of 40 individuals to receive the Fellowship out of 1,137 applicants. The Fellowship, a cash award of $25,000, will fund Hart’s poetry writing over the course of the next 2 years as she continues working on a book project that is already underway.
Ms. Hart’s 27 year-old son is a 1st LT Platoon leader with the 10th Mountain Division. “The book I am working on is a collection of poetry that probes the seams of family, community and the military. I’ve been inspired by a line from William Carlos Williams who wrote in one of his poems, It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there,” explained Ms. Hart.
One of the significant programs Hart leads at the Museum is Thinking Through Art: Young Artists & Writers, a collaborative education program with elementary and secondary schools that uses artwork in KMA exhibitions as inspiration for students’ original writing and art making. Many area schools participate in the program including Katonah Elementary School, Meadow Pond Elementary, Lewisboro Elementary School, Increase Miller Elementary School, The Harvey School, and the King School in Connecticut.