Carson’s Reid wins fellowship award

Robert Leonard Reid, Carson City writer and musician, was selected by the Nevada Arts Council to receive $5,000 in 2014 Artist Fellowship funding for work in creative fiction.

The council, which chose two artists in each of three categories for $5,000 awards, named Reid as one of the pair selected for the literary arts. The other, also chosen for creative fiction, was Natalia Cortes Chaffin of Las Vegas. Reid and Chaffin were among 101 applicants competing in the literary or performing and visual arts categories.

Reid, well-known in the capital city for his work as a musician as well, indicated he also was chosen a few years ago for such a literary arts fellowship in non-fiction.

“This is the second time and I’m quite proud of it,” he said. “I’m thrilled and honored because there were a lot of people who entered.”

Reid plays piano and collaborates with Comma Coffee’s June Joplin, a singer, in the musical duo “Me and Bobby McGee.” Reid also has written, as well as staged, musical revues spoofing Nevada and national politics.

The other $5,000 recipients for 2014 were, in performing arts, Peter Epstein of Reno for musical performance on alto saxophone; Nate Kimball of Henderson for music composition; and in the visual arts, Linda Alterwitz of Las Vegas for digital photography, and Robin Stark of Henderson for sculptures/ceramics.

The arts council said that along with using the funds to produce art during the fellowship year, each of the six fellows will provide a free public event relevant to his or her discipline. The event may be through readings, exhibitions, performances or master classes.

The council made nine fellowship honorable mention awards of $500 each, with a half dozen of the recipients from this region. Those six are David R. Anderson, Gardnerville, creative fiction; Todd Green, Minden, multi-instrument musical performance; Tami Phillips LeHouillier, Incline Village, creative fiction; as well as Reno’s Eric Burke for painting, Erica Paul Carlson for music composition, and Brad Summerhill for creative fiction.

The other three go to Cyd Brown of Henderson for sculpture, and to Las Vegas’s Noelle Garcia for mixed media and Mykola Suk for musical performance on piano.