Wordplay: A classic with Holly Iglesias

Thursday last week I left the mountains for a road trip to Charlotte and Tarboro, and got back into Asheville only late Sunday, so I just had time to grab the recording of a classic Wordplay show before airtime. That show, originally broadcast in October of 2010, featured Holly Iglesias. Holly spent her college years in New Orleans, and went from there into an adventurous life that took her far from the intellectual and spiritual confines of the American psyche. The show focuses on her years in New Orleans and beyond, and the work that grew out of her experience of that larger world. You'll find the stream from AshevilleFM right here, and the archived show already at ibiblio.

Last month Holly got word that she'd received an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship for 2011. The UNCA website offered this account of her plans:

In accepting the NEA award, Iglesias described the fellowship as "a kiss, an embrace, a dare… and the mandate to keep writing." She says she will use the funding to support and expand the work she is best known for, prose poems based on historical events. "Because the work is its own reward, the NEA fellowship is icing (thick butter cream) on a three-layer chocolate cake," says Iglesias. "The poems have been graced upon me; they come and go. My job continues to be staying awake and opening the door when they arrive."

Congratulations, Holly - and do plan to visit the studio again for another show!