Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas author Grif Stockley is the first recipient of a new grant program for writers sponsored by the William F. Laman Public Library in North Little Rock, the library announced today.

The program, the Laman Library Writers Fellowship, will award up to $10,000 each year to an Arkansas author. An independent group of literary professionals will select the recipients based on the creative excellence of their work.

The library will accept applications from June through September of each year. Applicants must be previously published or have a commission from a commercial American publisher to write a full-length work of fiction, poetry or nonfiction.

No tax dollars will be used, the library said.

Stockley is known for his mystery novels and his nonfiction writing on race relations in Arkansas. He currently is writing a book on the 1959 fire at the Negro Boys Industrial School in Wrightsville.