The Black Mountain Institute (BMI) at UNLV welcomes three new writers to the Diana L. Bennett Literary Arts Fellows Program. Each will write at the BMI daily for nine months. Luljeta Lleshanaku, Mary Palvesky and Robert Rosenberg received the prestigious fellowship giving them a rare chance and ample time to develop a piece of literary work in an environment free from distractions. Additionally, the program provides UNLV students an opportunity to interact with accomplished writers about literary perspectives and converse on national and global affairs and the writing profession.

"The qualified candidate is one whose work covers subject areas outside the realm of American life and examines important international issues," said Dr. Carol Harter, Black Mountain Institute executive director. "We are fortunate to have these unique voices that can share their diverse literary backgrounds with the university and community-at-large."

Luljeta Lleshanaku is the International Women's Forum Fellow and is known as the re-inventor of Albanian poetry who grew up under house arrest because of her family's opposition to dictator Enver Hoxha. She was not permitted to publish her poetry until 1991 and is the author of four critically acclaimed collections: "The Sleepwalker's Eyes," "Sunday Bells," "Half-Cubism" and "Antipastoral." She received a literature degree from the University of Tirana and has participated in the prestigious International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.

Mary Palevsky directed the Nevada Test Site Oral History Project at UNLV from 2003 to 2008. She is the author of "Atomic Fragments: A Daughter's Questions," which explores the moral legacy of the atomic bomb through the experience of her parents, both scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory during World War II. Palevsky's fellowship is in conjunction with the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., where she will spend a portion of her time. She is currently working on a book examining the role of underground nuclear testing in America's democratic development.

Robert Rosenberg, the Sonja and Michael Saltman Fellow, is an assistant professor of English and creative writing at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. He is writing about the overlapping heritage of Jews and Armenians in the city of Istanbul. He is the author of the novel "This Is Not Civilization," a Borders Original Voices pick and the recipient of the 2005 Maria Thomas Fiction Award. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kyrgyzstan from 1994 to 1996 and received a master's in fine arts from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he was awarded a Maytag Fellowship and a Teaching/Writing Fellowship.

Support for the individual fellowships comes from Sonja and Michael Saltman, the International Women's Forum and the Library of Congress. The BMI awards three to five fellowships each year to exceptional writers who have published at least one highly acclaimed book before the application deadline. The fellows each have an office and access to the UNLV Lied Library. For detailed biographies of the fellows, please visit <a href="http://blackmountain.unlv.edu/">Black Mountain Institute</a>.

For more information, please contact the Black Mountain Institute at 702-895-5542 or via e-mail at: blackmountaininstitute@unlv.edu.