Holly Goddard Jones

September 18, 2008
5 p.m.

Holly Goddard Jones is the winner of the 2007 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award, which carries a whopping $25,000 cash prize.  Her work has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, The Kenyon Review, Epoch, The Hudson Review, and The Southern Review.  Her story “Theory of Reality” was selected by ZZ Packer for New Stories from the South 2008, and “Proof of God” was picked by George Pelicanos for Best American Mystery Stories 2008.  Her story "Life Expectancy" was selected by Edward P. Jones to be included in New Stories from the South:  The Year's Best.  Jones was raised in Kentucky, which serves as the setting for much of her work.  Edward P. Jones says of her work, "She applies the compass from her upbringing to the sophisticated narratives she fashions. That is, she is never tempted by her own cleverness to veer from the story's true soul.  Her characters span every age group, and their problems and thoughts are thoroughly steeped in real life."  Jones, 27, has just sold her first story collection, Girl Trouble, to Harper Perennial with a scheduled release in September 2009.  She is Assistant Professor in the department of English and Philosophy at Murray State University. 

Gary Fincke 

October 14, 2008
5 p.m. 

A 2003 winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction (Sorry I Worried You), Gary Fincke has published sixteen books of poetry and short fiction, most recently Standing Around the Heart.  In 2002, Fincke completed Writing Letters For the Blind, which won the 2003 Ohio State University Press/The Journal poetry prize, and The Stone Child, a collection of short stories that earned Fincke praise as “one of literary America’s best-kept secrets.” Winner of the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry magazine and the Rose Lefcowitz Prize from Poet Lore, Gary Fincke has also received a PEN Syndicated Fiction Prize as well as seven fellowships for creative writing from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. His poems, stories, and essays have appeared in Harper's, Newsday, The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, The Georgia Review, American Scholar, and Doubletake. Twice awarded Pushcart Prizes for his work, Fincke recently had his prize-winning essay "The Canals of Mars" reprinted in The Pushcart Essays, an anthology of the best nonfiction printed during the first twenty-five years of Pushcart Prize volumes. His story "The Blazer Sestina" won the 2003 George Garrett Fiction Prize.  Gary Fincke is director of the Writers Institute and a professor of English and creative writing at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. Specializing in creative writing, he teaches introductory and advanced workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction while overseeing independent writing projects, practica, and internships for writing majors.

Molly Giles

March 25, 2009
5 p.m.  

 

Molly Giles is a winner of the Pushcart Prize, Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, Small Press Book Award, Boston Globe Award, Bay Area Book Reviewers Award, PEN Syndicated Fiction Award and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts; she is also a nominee for the Pulitzer Prize.  Her stories have been featured on National Public Radio’s “Selected Shorts.”  Long renowned as a brilliant short story writer, Molly Giles made a triumphant debut as a novelist in 2000 with the critically acclaimed Iron Shoes.  Giles is Professor and Director of Programs in Creative Writing at the University of Arkansas.