ON A ROLL: Jason Macom recently took part in the U.S. Para-cycling Track National Championships at the VELO Sports Center in Carson, Calif., where he won three silver medals and a bronze. He also was invited to join the U.S. national team and be added to its roster, which features 10 men and six women from across the nation. He'll compete in the 2017 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships on March 2-5 in Los Angeles. Earlier a professional BMX racer, Macom transitioned to road and track cycling in 2004 but in 2015 lost his right leg from below the knee from complications while recovering from a broken ankle. Macom, whose athletic endeavors are sponsored by The Clean Eatery, works as a barber at The Art of Men's Cuts in Bryant.
DRAWING ON A SUCCESS: Marvel Comics recently announced that its All-New Guardians of the Galaxy will feature artwork by Fayetteville resident Aaron Kuder (Death of X).
TOUCHING TRIBUTE: The Oxford American Literary Project last week announced a new fellowship honoring the late Jeff Baskin, longtime executive director of the William F. Laman Library System in North Little Rock.
The Oxford American Jeff Baskin Writers Fellowship, launched in partnership with the ACANSA Arts Festival, is designed to support the writing of a debut book of creative nonfiction by an author who has not yet published that type of book. The award includes a $10,000 living stipend, housing and an editorial apprenticeship with the magazine toward a nine-month residency in central Arkansas.
Baskin, who died in September 2014 soon after being diagnosed with cancer, led the library for 27 years. He oversaw the modernization and multiple expansions of the city's main library and the renovation of a former downtown Main Street post office into the Argenta branch library. One of Baskin's favorite projects was the Laman Library Writers Fellowship, a grant program founded five years before his passing that awarded up to $10,000 each year to a previously published Arkansas author to assist in finishing another writing project.
Judges for the Oxford American's fellowship for unpublished authors bearing Baskin's name are a trio of the magazine's contributors.
Submissions will be accepted until midnight March 30 with the winner announced the first week in May. Visit www.oxfordamerican.org/fellowship or contact the magazine's editors at [email protected] for more information.
A REEL ROUNDUP: The Old State House museum in downtown Little Rock is mingling history with romance Friday. During the Second Friday Art Night event, the museum will screen the 1954 musical comedy, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, set in 1860s Oregon Territory. The film is free with concessions available.
Contact Linda S. Haymes at (501) 399-3636 or [email protected]
SundayMonday on 02/05/2017