PH-born writer Grace Talusan receives Boston Foundation grant

Grace Talusan’s memoir, ‘The Body Papers,’ won numerous recognitions including the Massachusetts Book Awards in nonfiction. HANDOUT

Philippine-born writer Grace Talusan, author of the prize-winning memoir The Body Papers, was named among 16 grantees of Brother Thomas Fellows.

The awardees will each receive a $15,000 unrestricted grant, the Boston Foundation and Pucker Gallery announced. The program has awarded a total of $1,080,000 to 72 grantees since its inception in 2009.

The 2021 Fellows are notable for their talent and diversity – 15 of the 16 fellows identify as people of color. They comprise a mix of literary, performance, and craft artistic media, and range widely in age and career arc.

Talusan’s memoir won the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, the Massachusetts Book Awards in nonfiction, and was a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection.

Her short story, “The Book of Life and Death,” was translated into several languages, including Filipino, for the Boston Book Festival’s One City One Story program.

Talusan is currently the Fannie Hurst Writer-in-Residence at Brandeis University, where she teaches creative writing and is working on her first novel.

Born in the Philippines, Talusan was raised in New England. She graduated from Tufts University and the MFA Program in Writing at University of California Irvine. She is the recipient of a U.S. Fulbright Fellowship to the Philippines and an Artist Fellowship Award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

The Brother Thomas Fund was established at the Boston Foundation to honor the legacy of Brother Thomas Bezanson, a Benedictine monk and world-renowned ceramic artist, who wanted the sale of his work to support artists at critical junctures in their careers.

The 16 artists, each of whom has established their place in the artistic spectrum, were nominated by a committee of artistic leaders, including past Fellows.

“Every two years, the Boston Foundation has the opportunity to recognize the creative works of a diverse range of artists with the Brother Thomas Fellowships. This group is no exception – a talented cohort of artists whose interests range from the written, spoken, and musical to mixed media and ceramics,” said Lee Pelton, president and CEO of the Boston Foundation.