Big Congratulations to Our Fellowship Winners!

Big congrats go to . . .

Heritage Fellowship: Emily Viggiano
Completion Fellowships: Hannah Vanderhart and Allyson Armistead
Thesis Fellowships: Moriah Purdy, Priyanka Champaneri, and
Rebecca McGill

Great job everyone!

A Goodly Long List of Good News

Whoop—spoke too soon. Or, ah, a bit late. Anyhow, this small space isn't going to do justice to all this, so it's heavily linked . . .  A large set of congrats to:

• Steve Amick, for his second novel, Nothing But a Smile, due out from Pantheon in March 2009;

• Ramola D, whose short story collection, Temporary Lives & Other Stories, won AWP's Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction;

• Laura Ellen Scott, for two stories, one in "the future" issue of Barrelhouse, which will be out in the near future, and "Do you know what it means to miss," in Juked;

• Tara Laskowski, who won SmokeLong Quarterly's Kathy Fish Fellowship, which, in addition to the prize, means her pieces will appear in each of the four issues of SmokeLong in 2009;

• Scott Garson, whose story, "Land of the Whispering Dead," is due out in PANK #3 this February (and if you haven't already, read his blog and Wigleaf, which he edits); and

• Ryan Call, whose new entry in his subversive (okay, he said "alternative") North American weather series will be published as a chapbook by ml press later this year.

And, yes, you too can read Mike Scalise's excellent nonfiction in the Fall/Winter 2008–2009 issue of Ninth Letter.

Congratulations all!

Brian Brodeur, Guest Blogger at The Writer's Center

According to my Facebook feed, Brian Brodeur is a guest blogger this week over at the Bethesda Writer's Center blog. He writes about his short-lived career as a plate spinner, sailing around the world in a hot dog, and where the wild things are. And he writes about his new book Other Latitudes. Here's an excerpt from his post:

When an interviewer recently asked if I’d thought the publication of my first book would change my life, I responded with one word: “No.” I then went on to express my gratitude for the trickling of e-mails I’d received from sympathetic strangers who wrote to tell me how much they’d enjoyed my book. How shocked I was that anyone had actually read it. Feeling a little guilty now for not being one-hundred percent honest, I’d like to revise my answer.

Brian Brodeur and Eric Pankey will be reading this Sunday at The Writer's Center. Details at the website. The reading starts at 2:00pm.

Well Done, Ryan

In case some people read this blog but haven't seen Ryan's and, like me, don't actually see people in live contexts: The University of Houston offered Mr. Call a two-year fellowship to teach and, well, write things. So he'll work near the likes of Antonya Nelson and Chitra Divakaruni as he communes with Houston-haunting Donald Barthelme's ghost. Meanwhile, a little thing called the Sewannee Writer's Conference has invited him as a Tennessee Williams Scholar this summer. Good job, Ryan, and good luck.

The 2008 Spring Fiction Award Winners

Congratulations to Allyson and Ryan! Allyson is a first-year student; she received her BA and MA in English from VA Tech, where she also won writing awards. And all of you blog fans should know Ryan; he is the co-founder of and the primary contributor to this blog. Ryan is graduating in May from the MFA program.

Excellent work!

Mary Roberts Rinehart Award - Fiction
Winner: Allyson Armistead, Translation

Dan Rudy Fiction Award

Winner: Ryan Call, An Embarrassing Knot I Could Not Undo

Shelley A. Marshall Fiction Award

Winner: Ryan Call, Fermata

Mason Poets Win Prizes

Mason alums Danielle Deulen and Nancy K. Pearson recently won the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prizes for 2007.

Congratulations to them.

To see their winning poems (and the official prize page) go here. Click on "prizewinners" under 2007 Awards in the left sidebar.