Frances de Pontes Peebles
Photo by Elaine Melko
Bio
Frances de Pontes Peebles is the author of the novels The Air You Breathe and The Seamstress. Her work has been translated into ten languages and won the Elle Grand Prix for fiction, the Friends of American Writers Award, and O. Henry Prize Stories. She has received fellowships from Fulbright, the James Michener-Copernicus Society of America, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and Brazil’s Sacatar Foundation. Born in Brazil and raised in Miami, she is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she also served as visiting professor of fiction. She currently serves on the board of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights.
Writing is like scaling a mountain in the dark: I move carefully, trying to grasp what I can’t immediately see. There is never an easy or direct path. It requires time, patience, dedication, and stubbornness bordering on obsession. I often stumble, lose my bearings, think I don’t have the talent or the grit to keep going. Receiving a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts is an incredible honor and source of motivation. It gives me the gift of time, the freedom to focus on my work, and the validation of knowing that I am supported and valued in my journey as an artist. Thank you, NEA.