[lit-ideas] WHO RECEIVES GRANT MONEY?

http://www.literaryrevolution.com/news/news.crony.htm
WHO RECEIVES GRANT MONEY?
or, Cronyism in the Lit-world


When the 2002 National Endowment for the Arts $20,000 grants to writers 
were announced earlier this summer, the names on the list included 
Jonathan Franzen: highly-publicized best-selling author of THE 
CORRECTIONS. Jonathan Franzen! The U.L.A. received inquiries about the 
matter, because of our reputation at having protested a $35,000 
Guggenheim award in 2000 to ultra-rich author Rick Moody. Why, and how, 
did Jonathan Franzen receive an award of money from the government, when 
he is among the dozen or so authors in the country who least need it? We 
decided to look into the matter.
ROUND UP THE USUAL SUSPECTS

A cursory investigation into NEA grants, and into similar awards like 
the Guggenheims, reveals the appearance again and again of the same 
names. A person sitting on an NEA panel handing out money one year will 
often receive it the next. University professor Josip Novakovich sat on 
a grants panel in 2000, then received money in 2002. (Prose grants are 
given every other year.) The 2002 grant was his second NEA award. (He'd 
previously received one in 1991.) Out of the many thousands of writers 
in America, should one of them receive TWO NEA awards? Is Professor 
Novakovich that outstanding a writer, or in that in need of help? We 
think not. (In 1999 Novakovich received a $35,000 Guggenheim award.)

Novakovich isn't an exceptional case. Educator and bookstore owner Lisa 
Howorth sat on both the 2000 and 2002 awards panels. In a nation of 280 
million people, many of them literate, why do the same individuals serve 
as judges again and again?

More noticeable than awards professionals like Howorth and Novakovich, 
is the frequency of names connected with the core NYC literary elite. 
Sitting on the 2000 panel with Howorth and Novakovich were better known 
literary celebrities Mary Gaitskill (good friend of Rick Moody) and 
David Foster Wallace. Also on a 2000 NEA panel was Foster Wallace friend 
John O'Brien, publisher of the Dalkey Archive Press in Illinois. In 
2001, a year after O'Brien served as a judge, Dalkey received a $50,000 
NEA grant.

One of the most frequently-appearing names, when public art monies are 
involved, remains Hiram F. "Rick" Moody III, despite the controversy 
over his 2000 Guggenheim grant. As Moody himself said in a May 2002 
interview, "I judged about a zillion awards this year. . . ."

We at the Underground Literary Alliance voiced our concerns late last 
year, when we learned that Rick Moody had been chosen as a judge for the 
2002 awards. Should someone who had already demonstrated his lack of 
conscience--his noticeable greed--been chosen for that role? After the 
effort we expended in highlighting his example of corruption, it was a 
slap in the face. Of the thousands of writers, editors, and even 
bookstore owners, in this vast civilization, Rick Moody should've been 
the LAST person chosen for such a responsibility. His selection was the 
signal of a system incapable of reforming itself. "Would Rick Moody 
reward his friends?" we wondered. THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HE DID.
THE RICH GET RICHER--AT YOUR EXPENSE

Despite his scant talents, and the modest interest in his work from the 
book-buying public, Rick Moody has received continual hype from the 
mainstream media. In a 4/14/97 TIME article by R.Z. Sheppard, Moody was 
included as one of "Fiction's New Fab Four," along with David Foster 
Wallace, Donald Antrim, and Jonathan Franzen:

"All are graduates of elite Eastern colleges. Moody and Antrim were 
friends at Brown. Wallace concentrated on philosophy and English 
literature at Amherst, while Franzen majored in German at Swarthmore. 
The latter two became close after Wallace wrote a Franzen fan letter 
about the time Franzen met Moody, . . . Antrim and Franzen visit 
regularly. . . ."

Four buddies, from the sound of it, who've been linked together by the 
mainstream media again and again. "The New White Guys," they've been 
called. All are privileged and successful, and all suck at the public 
trough. The "Fab Four" were included in the NEW YORKER's 1999 list of 
"Twenty Best Writers Under Forty." Also on that list was Matthew Klam, 
another of their literary circle. Like the Four, Klam is from an 
affluent background, and writes for high-paying NYC magazines like the 
NEW YORKER. Like the Four, Klam is a darling of the establishment media. 
Not by any stretch of the imagination could one of them be called a 
struggling writer--yet they receive taxpayer (and tax-sheltered) money.

We ask our regular question: Why does scarce grant money go to those 
writers who least need it? RICK MOODY GIVES TAXPAYER MONEY TO . . . JON 
FRANZEN! Among writers receiving NEA grants in 2002 are Donald Antrim, 
Matthew Klam, and Jonathan Franzen. Antrim is one of Moody's best 
friends (his name regularly appears in the Acknowledgements sections of 
Moody's books). As for Franzen, at the time Moody sat on the panel, 
Franzen's book THE CORRECTIONS (which should be called THE CONNECTIONS, 
or maybe THE COLLECTIONS) had already been proclaimed "novel of the 
year" by the media. The firestorm of hype for it had begun--it was 
obvious that Jonathan Franzen was going to make a ton of money. How 
could a grant be so inappropriate; the corruption of the system so 
blatant? A privileged coterie of writers stay on top in part by helping 
themselves; buddies all. Rick Moody is so well-off, money has no meaning 
to him. He's never had to worry about paying his bills. $20,000 could be 
20 cents for all he knows. It doesn't register with him. The NEA's 
wasn't the only money Rick Moody handed out this year. Moody was also 
one of three judges of the inaugural PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowships for 
writers. One of the other judges was Joel Conarroe, President of PEN 
American Center. Conarroe is also President of J.S. Guggenheim 
Foundation, which in 2000 gave Rick Moody $35,000. Conarroe had been 
Moody's most ardent defender when the U.L.A. made a fuss. Conarroe saw 
nothing wrong with a writer so wealthy he lived on an exclusive island 
reserved for the richest families in America receiving such funds. How 
appropriate then, that both miscreants sat on the 2002 PEN panel 
together. Of three $35,000 Fellowships they awarded, one went to Matthew 
Klam.
A WORD FROM JONATHAN FRANZEN

Franzen's reply to our inquiry:

"As to your question--leaving aside your slightly Inquisitional tone--I 
applied for an NEA (for like the 7th time) before THE CORRECTIONS took 
off. The money was kind of an embarrassment, in the event. I used all of 
it to buy work from a couple of underappreciated visual artists I know, 
since visual artists can't get NEAs anymore. Don't know if this passes 
muster with the ULA; but that's what I did."

In other words, Franzen bought two expensive paintings for himself. Not 
quite someone who needs the funds in order to write! Do taxpayers know 
their hard-earned dollars were spent for Jon Franzen to decorate his 
walls? His casual rationalization reveals tremendous arrogance. 
"--that's what I did." So there! Clueless. Entirely clueless. These 
parasites on the working public are touted as our leading novelists, yet 
their actions show they lack the integrity, the knowledge of their own 
country, and the empathy with people, that a great writer must have.

---King Wenclas

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