Columns/Blog, Guest Column, Uncategorized

UW professor nominated for (another) literary award

by Staff August 22, 2011September 22, 2021

UW professor nominated for (another) literary award

The last time WyoFile checked in with Brad Watson, he had just been nominated for a PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. It seems the critics are still loving what they’re reading from the University of Wyoming English professor, as he has now been named one of six finalists for a literary prize from St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y. The winner will be announced Sept. 17.

That gives you a great chance to read (or read again) Susan Gray Gose’s profile of Watson from March. And as long as we’re on the subject of revisiting pieces from the WyoFile Writers’ Series, Wyoming’s near-Biblical plague of grasshoppers this summer is a good reminder of Gose’s June profile of UW entomologist and writer Jeffrey Lockwood.

Here’s more on Watson’s literary accolades from the UW press office:

Watson’s collection, “Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives,” is 12 stories of family strife, personal loss, physical trauma and emotional reckoning. Watson, who teaches in the UW Department of English and the MFA in Creative Writing Program, was selected from among 116 entries.
The six writers, competing for one of the richest awards in North America, are a diverse mix of authors, coming from across the United States and around the world.
The other writers and their nominated books are: Kevin Brockmeier, “The Illumination” (Pantheon); Joshua Cohen, “Witz” (Dalkey Archive Press); Jonathan Dee, “The Privileges” (Random House); Yiyun Li, “Gold Boy Emerald Girl” (Random House); and Marlene van Niekerk, “Agaat” (Tin House Books).
The prize-winning author will be announced at the opening night gala for the 2011 Brooklyn Book Festival.
Last spring, Watson was a finalist for the prestigious 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, America’s largest peer juried prize for fiction. The Boston Globe named “Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives” among the year’s best fiction books.
Also during the spring semester, Watson was among 180 recipients of a prestigious fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Guggenheim Fellowships are grants for a minimum of six months and a maximum of 12. The program provides recipients with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible.

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The Pitch

UW professor nominated for (another) literary award

by Staff August 22, 2011

UW professor nominated for (another) literary award

Here’s more on Watson’s literary accolades from the UW press office:

Watson’s collection, “Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives,” is 12 stories of family strife, personal loss, physical trauma and emotional reckoning. Watson, who teaches in the UW Department of English and the MFA in Creative Writing Program, was selected from among 116 entries.

The six writers, competing for one of the richest awards in North America, are a diverse mix of authors, coming from across the United States and around the world.

The other writers and their nominated books are: Kevin Brockmeier, “The Illumination” (Pantheon); Joshua Cohen, “Witz” (Dalkey Archive Press); Jonathan Dee, “The Privileges” (Random House); Yiyun Li, “Gold Boy Emerald Girl” (Random House); and Marlene van Niekerk, “Agaat” (Tin House Books).

The prize-winning author will be announced at the opening night gala for the 2011 Brooklyn Book Festival.

Last spring, Watson was a finalist for the prestigious 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, America’s largest peer juried prize for fiction. The Boston Globe named “Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives” among the year’s best fiction books.

Also during the spring semester, Watson was among 180 recipients of a prestigious fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Guggenheim Fellowships are grants for a minimum of six months and a maximum of 12. The program provides recipients with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible.

What we're looking for:

Your real name — first and last.
Direct responses to the article. Tell us how your experience relates to the story.
The truth. Share factual information that adds context to the reporting.
Thoughtful answers to questions raised by the reporting or other commenters.
Tips that could advance our reporting on the topic.
No more than three comments per story, including replies.

What we block from our comments section, when we see it:

Pseudonyms. WyoFile stands behind everything we publish, and we expect commenters to do the same by using their real name.
Comments that are not directly relevant to the article.
Demonstrably false claims, what-about-isms, references to debunked lines of rhetoric, professional political talking points or links to sites trafficking in misinformation.
Personal attacks, profanity, discriminatory language or threats.
Arguments with other commenters.

Other important things to know:

Appearing in WyoFile’s comments section is a privilege, not a right or entitlement.
We’re a small team and our first priority is reporting. Depending on what’s going on, comments may be moderated 24 to 48 hours from when they’re submitted — or even later. If you comment in the evening or on the weekend, please be patient. We’ll get to it when we’re back in the office.
We’re not interested in managing squeaky wheels, and even if we wanted to, we don't have time to address every single commenter’s grievance.
Try as we might, we will make mistakes. We’ll fail to catch aliases, mistakenly allow folks to exceed the comment limit and occasionally miss false statements. If that’s going to upset you, it’s probably best to just stick with our journalism and avoid the comments section.
We don’t mediate disputes between commenters. If you have concerns about another commenter, please don’t bring them to us.