Elliott Holt
Photo courtesy of Elliott Holt
Bio
Elliott Holt is the author of the novel You Are One of Them, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard award for a first book. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in publications including the New York Times, Slate, Time, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Guernica, and she has received a Pushcart Prize as well as fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Yaddo, and MacDowell. Holt was born and raised in Washington, DC, and has lived in Moscow, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and New York.
I still can’t believe I won an NEA Fellowship; the news was so wonderfully shocking that I couldn’t stop crying when I received the phone call. This is a life-changing award for me, not only because the money comes at a crucial time, but because I had lost faith in the novel I’d been working on for the past few years. I was having a crisis of confidence as a writer, but winning this NEA Fellowship—for a portion of the manuscript I was ready to abandon—has given me the courage I need to finish the book. The life of a writer is filled with self-doubt and financial insecurity, but this grant helps relieve both afflictions. I’m so grateful to the NEA for the support.