UND faculty receive 2009 Bush Foundation grants The Bush Foundation announced this week announced that 11 artists from North and South Dakota-including three UND faculty members-will share $49,290 in Dakota Creative Connections grants for projects designed to both develop new ideas and support current endeavors. The UND recipients are: * Heidi Czerwiec, assistant professor of English and co-director of the UND Writers Conference, received a $5,000 grant to work on developing and refining her sonnet sequence "Self-Portrait as Bettie Page" in preparation for publication at the Sewanee Writers Conference and West Chester University Poetry Conference. * Kathleen Coudle-King, senior lecturer in English, received a $6,000 grant to travel to small towns in North Dakota and Minnesota to interview residents; King is gathering information to expand her one-act play "Ghost Town" into an evening-length work.(www.dakotalit.com, $6,000 grant) * Michael Wittgraf, professor and chair of the UND Department of Music, received a $5,930 grant to compose a new work using KYMA X software in quadraphonic and stereophonic sound for premiere by the UND Concert Choir. Dakota Creative Connections grants provide artists with project support ranging from $3,000 to $6,000. The grants can be used for travel, study and research; artist residencies and retreats; equipment and materials; and/or short-term projects. Recipients were chosen by a regional panel of five artists and curators who met in Jamestown, N.D. over a two-day period in June. For more information on the Bush Foundation, see www.bushfoundation.org Useful links: Michael Wittgraf: www.und.edu/instruct/wittgraf/ Kathleen Coudle King: www.dakotalit.com/ Dakota Creative Connections: www.bushfellows.org/artist/dakota-creative-connections -- Juan Pedraza, Writer/Editor, University Relations, juanpedraza@mail.und.edu, 777-6571