GILFORD NATIVE RECEIVES RONA JAFFE WRITERS AWARD
Foster’s Daily Democrat, NH
Aug 31 2005
Fiction writer and Gilford native Rebecca Curtis was recently one
of six recipients of the 2005 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Awards,
given annually to women writers in the early stages of their careers.
Now in its 11th year, the Rona Jaffe Awards have helped many women
build successful writing careers by offering financial support at a
critical time.
The awards of $10,000 will be presented to the six recipients in New
York on Sept. 22.
Curtis is working on a collection of stories, mostly set in New
Hampshire where she grew up, focusing on the dangers women face in
society when they have transgressed their roles as daughter, wife,
mother. Her stories have been published in The New Yorker, Harper’s
and McSweeney’s among other publications.
She said she is “eager to try a different project, one that goes
outside my direct knowledge” and plans to begin a novel based on the
memoirs of Azni Gostonian, an Armenian woman who survived the Turkish
genocide by marrying a Turk and who eventually escaped with the help
of a Turkish woman who befriended her. She ended up in Manchester
where she became a close friend of Curtis’ grandmother.
Curtis plans to use her Writers Award for research and travel to
Armenia.
She teaches at the University of Kansas in Lawrence and has a B.A.
from Pomona College, an M.A. from NYU and an M.F.A. from Syracuse
University. She lives in Brooklyn.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress