UCROSS AWARDS FALL 2020 FELLOWSHIPS TO NATIVE AMERICAN VISUAL ARTIST AND WRITER

Anthony Hudson to receive the sixth Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists and Brendan Shay Basham to receive the inaugural Ucross Fellowship for Native American Writers 

Ucross, WY (October 7, 2020): Ucross, a prestigious artist residency program and creative laboratory for the arts in northern Wyoming, today announced its Fall 2020 Fellowships for Native American Visual Artists and Writers. The two awards represent an expansion of Ucross’s commitment to supporting contemporary Native American art and voices. The expansion of the already successful Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists to include literary artists was made possible through funds received from individuals as well as the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
Visual and performing artist Anthony Hudson and writer Brendan Basham will both be in residence at Ucross this fall. Hudson (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde), who lives in Portland, Oregon, is the sixth recipient of the visual arts fellowship. Basham (Diné), based in Nashville, Tennessee, is the first recipient of the new literary fellowship.
Hudson and Basham will each receive residencies that include uninterrupted time, studio space, and living accommodations on Ucross’s 20,000-acre ranch at the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains. Each Fellow is also awarded a $2,000 stipend, as well as opportunities to present their work publicly, at Ucross and elsewhere.
“We are honored to award our Native American Fellowships for Visual Artists and Writers to these two accomplished artists,” said Ucross President Sharon Dynak. “Anthony and Brendan are bringing fresh perspectives to our world through their creative work. We are glad to recognize their achievements and nurture the further development of their art and writing.”
Brendan Shay Basham: Brendan Shay Basham (Diné) is a fiction writer, poet, educator, and a former chef, born in Alaska and raised in northern Arizona. His work has appeared in the Santa Fe Literary Review, Red Ink, Yellow Medicine Review, Juked, Cloudthroat, and Sheepshead Review. He has been awarded two Writing By Writers Fellowships, a Truman Capote Trust Fellowship, and a Tin House Fellowship. He was also a nominee for a 2016 PEN / Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and a 2018 Pushcart Prize. He teaches literature and generative writing workshops at the undergraduate and graduate level. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is at work on his first novel. Currently, he serves as the Writers in Schools Coordinator with Southern Word, a literacy nonprofit teaching poetry and performance to Tennessee youth.
Anthony Hudson: Anthony Hudson (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, performer, and filmmaker based in Portland, Oregon. Anthony is perhaps best known as Portland’s premier drag clown Carla Rossi, an immortal trickster whose attempts at realness almost always result in fantastic failure. Anthony & Carla host and program their film series Queer Horror - the only ongoing, exclusively LGBTQ horror screening series in the United States – at Portland’s historic Hollywood Theatre, where Anthony also serves as its Community Programmer. Anthony was named a 2018 National Artist Fellowship from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, a 2018 Western Arts Alliance Native Launchpad Artist, and a 2019 Oregon Arts Commission Artist Fellow. Anthony's first professionally produced theatrical play, Looking for Tiger Lily, adapted from Anthony’s touring solo show of the same name, will make its world premiere at Artists Repertory Theatre.  

Located on a 20,000-acre ranch in the high plains of Wyoming, Ucross welcomes 100 artists from a variety of creative disciplines each year and provides meals, accommodations, and uninterrupted time to work and create. Annie Proulx's The Shipping News, Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza, Ricky Ian Gordon's operatic adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath and Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop are just a few of the acclaimed works that have been created in part during Ucross residencies.