“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support this group of poets and provide them with the means to focus on their writing,” said the NEA’s Director of Literary Arts Amy Stolls. “Their poetry explodes with originality in form and content, offering powerful reflections on the pain and joy of our modern times.”

Pelky is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Clarkson University and a member of the Brothertown Indian Nation of Wisconsin. She is the author of Through a Red Place (Perugia Press), winner of the 2021 Perguia Press Prize for poetry. Her first collection, Horizon of the Dog Woman (Saint Julian Press), was released in 2020. Her most recent publication is a translation of Chilean poet Matilde Ladrón de Guevara’s poetry collection Desnuda/Naked (Redhawk Publications), co-translated with Jake Young. Pelky received her MFA from Northern Michigan University and her PhD from the University of Missouri.

Since 1967, the NEA has awarded more than 3,600 Creative Writing Fellowships totaling over $57 million. Many American recipients of the National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and Fiction were recipients of National Endowment for the Arts fellowships early in their careers.

Visit arts.gov to browse bios and artist statements from all of the 2023 recipients and past Creative Writing Fellows.