The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced its 101st class of Guggenheim Fellows last month, including 223 distinguished individuals working across 55 disciplines. Two of those fellows are Bates faculty in the Department of English. Jessica Anthony ’96, senior lecturer, and Myronn Hardy, associate professor, are among this year’s class of winners. 

The Guggenheim offers fellowships to “exceptional individuals in pursuit of scholarship in any field of knowledge and creation in any art form, under the freest possible conditions.” 

A fellowship with no expiration, the Guggenheim is an emphatic vote of confidence. “As a poet, as a writer, as an artist, the word ‘no’ is usual, common,” Hardy said, “It’s breathtaking to hear, read, and experience ‘yes.’  I’m profoundly grateful.  I’m walking around spellbound.” 

Hardy’s Guggenheim is a career prize, celebrating his body of work while supporting future endeavors. Hardy has published six volumes of poetry, most recently, Aurora Americana. His books have received numerous accolades including the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the Griot-Stadler Prize for Poetry. 

“My current project centers poems that speak to colliding civilizations and what is made from, out of ruins. The large question of the project is: How do we, how can we live in the aftermath?”

Jess Anthony is the author of four novels, including The Most, which was longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction in 2024.  Anthony anticipates that the Guggenheim will create opportunities that she cannot quite imagine yet. 

“This award allows a novelist to carve out large swathes of time to focus and write. I plan to use this support to minimize distractions and busywork for as long as possible, and I will be embarking upon several research trips related to my project. “

Anthony said that the Guggenheim “both acknowledges the several years of work which led up to the moment of application, and supports the direction the writer is about to travel next. I am now working on my fifth book of fiction, a satiric, quasi-historical novel examining this moment’s unique brand of American isolation and indifference.”

Since its founding in 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation has honored more than 19,000 fellows and has awarded nearly $450 million. Applications in the creative arts and humanities were up 50 percent and applications in the sciences were up 86 percent this year, bringing this year’s total number of applicants to 5,000. 

“Our new class of Guggenheim Fellows is representative of the world’s best thinkers, innovators, and creators in art, science, and scholarship,” said Edward Hirsch, award-winning poet and president of the Guggenheim Foundation. 

Hardy teaches courses in poetry, focusing both on the writing of poetry and the study of poetics. Anthony teaches introductory and advanced fiction and nonfiction workshops and advises students writing creative theses. 

“My courses at Bates often reflect my own interests as a novelist,” Anthony said, “My previous novel, The Most, was developed through one of my favorite courses, ‘Women Writers of the 1950s.’”

“The fact that we have two Guggenheim fellows teaching creative writing at Bates speaks to the caliber of faculty that our students work with every day,” Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty Joanne Roberts said. “Myronn and Jess make important contributions in and out of the classroom, and I’m thrilled to see them both celebrated with such a prestigious award for their creative work.”

“This is a dreamlike award,” Hardy said. “And to have received this from such an esteemed selection committee and organization, suggests, even shouts that what I’ve made as a writer is valued by the culture.”

Faculty Featured

Jessica L. Anthony

Senior Lecturer in English

Myronn E. Hardy

Associate Professor of English