LOST & FOUND: THE CUNY POETICS DOCUMENT INITIATIVE
2017 LOST & FOUND GRANTS
Application Deadline: Friday, April 21, 2017
Extended Application Deadline: Monday, April 24, 2017 (11:59 PM)
ARCHIVAL RESEARCH GRANT
Lost & Found is a publishing project centered on student archival research in 20th century cultural materials, with a focus on poetry and poetics. Poised at the intersection of scholarly investigation, innovative publishing, and cultural preservation, each Lost & Found chapbook emphasizes the importance of collaborative and archival research. The work of Lost & Found is multi-valent and involves: archival research at all stages of its development, digital practices, public events, oral history, mentorship, transcription, and editorial support. The Center for the Humanities is delighted to announce 2017 Lost & Found Research Stipends available for doctoral students from all disciplines at the Graduate Center, CUNY, with experience and / or an interest in archival research.
The Lost & Found Research Stipend is for students in all disciplines who are currently developing archival research and will range from $1,000 to $3,000. It is important to note that Lost & Found is about process as much as product, and only some projects will ultimately be published, though all projects will be stewarded toward completion. Recipients should expect to complete a survey of their progress in September 2017.
We will entertain proposals for projects at all stages of development, from exploratory to advanced, but we strongly suggest that applicants familiarize themselves with Lost & Found publications to determine if their project makes sense within the context of our work. Please reach out to ch@gc.cuny.edu should any further questions or concerns arise.
DIANE DI PRIMA FELLOWSHIP
Lost & Found will be granting one Diane di Prima Fellowship. Diane di Prima’s archive is spread far and wide: her own home in San Francisco (a primary research site), as well as archives at UNC Chapel Hill, UConn Storrs, University of Delaware, and Syracuse, not to mention all the correspondence and other materials found in the archives of other contemporaries and colleagues. Having already published several di Prima projects with others in process at Lost & Found, these fellowships are for direct work on and with di Prima, with a particular emphasis on working with archivists and institutions to envision new channels of access across various holdings and modes of her oeuvre.
LEGACY FIELDWORK GRANT
As Lost & Found has evolved, editors have gained various levels of expertise. Former editors have become literary executors and archivists, others have worked on documentary projects as researchers or closely with estates and authors to investigate, curate, prepare and generally be of service in a variety of circumstances. Sometimes this has meant moving and or cataloging books, shipping things, organizing papers, serving as liaison between filmmakers, publishers, estates, estate brokers, library or special collections representatives and academic administrations. To this end, we have created the “Legacy Fieldwork” stipend for projects with unusual circumstances that might not be tied to an immediate research or archival project. Legacy Fieldwork is conceived of as the application of skills acquired through the archival research and publication process of Lost & Found to serve and educate the literary community writ large.
When applying for this, applicants should describe the situation at hand (being as specific as possible), what kind of skills are required to handle it, as well as the time frame, travel involved, and any other details necessary to understand how a stipend will bring Lost & Found’s practices to bear on the circumstances described.
POETS HOUSE SPECIAL COLLECTIONS RESEARCH AND WRITING FELLOWSHIP
Poets House and Lost & Found seek two doctoral student fellows from the Graduate Center, CUNY for a Special Collections Research and Writing Fellowship as part of Poets House’s ongoing digitization process. The fellowship is ideal for students working at the intersection of mid-century poetics, small press publishing, the digital humanities, and archival scholarship; and provides a unique opportunity to work closely with Lost & Found and Poets House to help contextualize and circulate Poets House’s vast collection of rare chapbooks online.
The collection features an impressive array of writers working from the 1960s and 70s, including poets associated with the Beats, the Black Arts Movement, Black Mountain, the New York School, Umbra, and other groupings. Many of the chapbooks were presented in Mimeo Revolution, an exhibition curated by previous Lost & Found fellows Meira Levinson and Kyle Waugh, and cover a range of important small presses including Black Sparrow, Toothpaste, Totem, and many others.
Fellows will research 5 chapbooks, writing three short essays (500-700 words) for each, covering 1) the author, 2) the publisher, and 3) the chapbook itself. The fellowship will take place between June 5 and August 11, and fellows will receive a $3,000 stipend. These texts (15 total) will be published on Poets House’s website to contextualize their collection.
TO APPLY
To apply for the Archival Research Grant, the Diane di Prima Fellowship, the Legacy Fieldwork Grant, or the Poets House Special Collections Research and Writing Fellowship please send the following to ksullivan@gc.cuny.edu no later than Friday April 21, 2017:
- Curriculum Vitae
- A one page letter of interest
- The linked application form
For more information about the project and how to apply to these grants, please visit:
