Vida James
Photo courtesy of Vida James
Bio
Vida James is Puerto Rican by way of New York, a social worker by trade. She is a 2023-2024 Center for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow. She holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she was a Delaney Fellow. Her work has been supported by Periplus, the St. Botolph Club Foundation, Storyknife, Tin House, Bread Loaf, MASS MoCA, and VONA. She has work appearing or forthcoming in Witness, Story, New England Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn where she is at work on her novel-in-stories.
At the time I was notified of this award, the world felt and continues to feel precarious and violent. I have been witness to, resistant of, and implicated in such violence. In these times I often question the utility of writing, of making art, even when words are meant to be a call for justice.
I’m in the finishing stages of my novel-in-stories. The project addresses issues of incarceration, social services, and the human relationships that uphold and are impacted by systems. I’m in the beginning of my writing career, and to have my work supported by the National Endowment for the Arts is validation for myself as an artist and also a reminder that this work has meaning. That my project, about a crisis of human rights in the United States, is supported and wanted. This prestigious award allows me the funding to continue research and dedicate time to this book.
When I received the call from Amy Stolls, I fell to my knees in excitement and shock and happiness. I also felt hope for a different world, and I felt a revival in the hope that art and literature can make change, and hope is not a small thing.