Last week, a 37-year-old Bismarck woman began a new job doing whatever she wants, whenever and wherever she wants.

She might get up a little later than normal, or earlier, whatever she's comfortable with - and then spend time at her desk in her house, just staring, if she wants, like she's in a trance. Or maybe she'll go to the library and read, or talk to people, ask them questions, or spend time in nature. Which is crucial to this work, she thinks. Maybe she'll go down to the Missouri River, which represents to her the "essence of life … all its mystery and danger and possibilities."

And eventually, whenever she wants, she'll put something down on paper.

Some significant words, she intends.

And she has two years and $50,000 in which to do it - to write two new plays.

If she can.

If she can't. That's OK, too.

Karen Von Fossan, a freelance writer, also involved in other pursuits - such as writing a 90-page play, "Ugly Girl,"and starting a dance and theatrical group in Bismarck called Dragon Jane - recently received a $50,000 Bush Foundation grant. She is one of the 15 Bush fellows picked for 2007 from 477 applicants in the artistic category from the three-state region the Bush Foundation serves - North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. She said she thinks it's one of the best things ever to happen to her.

"It's an opportunity to know I can eat and live as an artist - and be open to where the creative process is taking me,"she said.

But she didn't realize how open until she attended the orientation for new fellows and found out they're not even obligated to submit their finished work to Bush when the fellowship is over. "I was surprised," she said.

The Bush Foundation wants to give Von Fossan and the others - playwrights, composers, musicians and filmmakers - a breather from day-to-day financial loads and other concerns so they can give their attention to their art form, said Julie Dalgleish, the Bush Foundation's program director.

If they accomplish what they told the Bush Foundation they would do with the time, that's great. If they don't, that's OK, too.

"There is no expectation at the end that there be a finished product," Dalgleish said.

But they are encouraged to "focus on the work,"she said. And the finalists are deemed to be serious, commited people. The screening process to pick the finalists included evaluating the quality of the artists' past work, the excellence, or potential excellence, shown - and their serious commitment to being a playwright, musician, composer or filmmaker.

"That's the main thing they look at,"Dalgleish said.

The committee also looked at the timing of the grant, if it's a good time, a pivotal time, in this artist's career.

"The answers to all those were 'yes' with Karen,"she said.

The committee, which included playwright Michael Garces, director of a professional theater company in Los Angeles, Cornerstone Theatre, was taken with her work.

"It's fairly unusual for us to find playwrights that are of her quality living outside of the Twin Cities,"Dalgleish said.

She said Minneapolis is home to the Playwright Center, which nurtures the development of playwrights.

"So we happen to have a lot of really fine playwrights,"she said.

"Karen was a great surprise,"she said.

Dalgleish said the play Von Fossan submitted is "so well done, well written, you could imagine it being performed."

"Ugly Girl,"a play that explores forgiveness and reconciliation, has been performed, already - at least parts of it. While living in Chicago several years ago, she put on several scenes of it in coffee shop-type venues where it was well-received, Von Fossan said.

Von Fossan, who grew up in Illinois, said theater wasn't a major part of her childhood. But writing was. At age 10, she won a writing award for a book of poems. And writing always remained essential.

"I need to write for my mental health. Writing, for me, is a spiritual practice," she said. "It's grounding for me and it helps me clarify over and over again who I am in the world and how I see the world."

Von Fossan has an undergraduate degree in English and master's degrees in dance movement therapy and children's literature.

Susan Campbell Bartoletti, whose book "Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler's Shadow,"won a 2006 Newberry Honor, was Von Fossan's teacher when Von Fossan was pursuing her graduate degree in children's literature at Hollings University in Roanoke, Va.

"She was an outstanding creative writer. It was in 1999 when I taught her, and I still remember some of the stories she wrote,"Bartoletti said. "… She's going to do the Bush Foundation proud."

Von Fossan ended up living in Bismarck when she came here as a Vista volunteer to help start a statewide college-campus violence-prevention project. Recent writing and dance projects include writing a poetry book and writing the play "Peaches Loves Peas" - which the local children's theater group, Shade Tree Players, performed this summer.

"She's amazingly creative. She blew my mind how good she is with kids," said Amanda Irvine, an artist in residence for Shade Tree Players and for Bismarck's public schools.

Irvine, who is now directing a child's version of Shakespeare's Macbeth for the Shade Tree Players, said Von Fossan has been told if she writes more plays, Shade Tree Players wants to stage them.

Von Fossan also has been creating theatrical-dance pieces for the Dragon Jane dance company and recently received an award from the Abused Adult Resource Center for "creating theater, dance and music that betters women's lives." Von Fossen also is the past president of the North Dakota Peace Coalition and past director of the Peace Studies - West program, which brought in a series of speakers on topics related to peace.

And for years, she kept writing a novel, called "Ugly Girl."

But about a year or more ago, Von Fossan's partner, Kris Kitko, was reading "Ugly Girl" and commented that it read more like a play. And that's when it clicked with Von Fossan that it was plays that she was trying to write. Now that the lightbulb has been turned on, she's sure.

"I want to write plays for the rest of my life,"she said.

Of the 15 fellows, three are from North Dakota: Von Fossan, the only playwright; Liselotte Erdrich, of Wahpeton, literature, nonfiction; and Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson, Fargo, film and video.

Of the 15 fellows, three are playwrights: two from Minnesota and Von Fossan.

She said she wants her work to be about her community and for her community. "I want to give something beautiful to my community and Bismarck,"she said.

She has ideas for her two plays, which could change.

For the first, "Unavenged,"which would focus on forgiveness and reconciliation, she plans on gathering stories of people who "have chose the unavenging path, who have shaped their life stories to be tales of courage and compassion." The second, "Death: AComedy,"would be a light-hearted look at death, bringing in various religious traditions.

But those ideas could all change.

Or, maybe not.

To write this day, or not, that is the question.

Maybe.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@;bismarcktribune.com.)