OOPS!

I mean Missouri--not Nebraska
Missouri home to Mark Twain, T. S. Eliott, wasn't Marianne Moore, Kate Chopin from St. Louis. Tennessee Williams spent time there before relocating to New Orleans and NYC and Tennessee. Many great writers are from Missouri--home of the excellent Missouri Review which holds annually this contest:

Editors' Prize Contest

Jeffrey E. Smith
Editors' Prize in
Fiction, Essay and Poetry

Not Just Any Contest!

Select winning entries in the past have been reprinted in the Best American series

$5,000 Fiction | $5,000 Poetry | $5,000 Essay

As artists no one can afford to lose funding. I googled defunding and read a little bit of a tea party blog called Liberty, I think. Really, who cares. Anyway the blogger said that it would be fine by him if the governor defunded the arts council because that was big government and big government is bad. His argument was that the market should dictate who gets funded. I mean if people want to support theater then they should just go to that theater, spend their money there. If they want to read a certain book, then they should just buy it--why the heck FUND these artists through the state arts council. Maybe the "people" don't want or like that art--why should government be in the business of funding public murals, paying for sculpture on the lawn, or grant-match a non-profit theater.

Sounds good if all you care about is seeing Cats or reading Tom Clancey pulp fiction. 

Because the real cats and the real writers are all going to be in the alley experimenting with their art and trying to get it right. This by no means is meant to be a slam against commercial enterprises--it's just that they don't need the support.

By the way--thank you Illinois. I got my grant check in the mail yesterday. Please, please don't ever got away, IAC.