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WCU’s Rash is finalist for top fiction award
Ron Rash, the Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Culture at Western Carolina University, has been named one of four finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the largest peer-juried prize for fiction in the United States, for his compilation of short stories, “Chemistry and Other Stories.”
The names of the award winner and four finalists were announced recently after contest judges reviewed almost 350 novels and short story collections written by American authors and published during 2007. Winner Kate Christensen, author of the novel “The Great Man,” will receive a $15,000 prize, while Rash and the other three finalists receive $5,000 each. All five authors will be honored in a ceremony on Saturday, May 10, at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
Ron Rash, the Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Culture at Western Carolina University, has been named one of four finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the largest peer-juried prize for fiction in the United States, for his compilation of short stories, “Chemistry and Other Stories.”
In announcing Rash as a finalist, contest judges called him “a pre-eminent chronicler of Appalachia in fiction and poetry” and said the narratives in his short story collection “span the 20th century from perspectives as authentic as they are unexpected.” The stories, they said, “depict a wide range of characters – a logger, waitress and carnival knife-thrower among them – in voices both stark and lyrical of characters young and old.”
Brian Railsback, dean of WCU’s Honors College and an English professor and published novelist, noted that, as a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner, Rash is in the company of such literary giants as Annie Dillard, also a 2007 finalist. The honor “is akin to being named finalist for the Pulitzer or the National Book Award,” Railsback said.
“To have a writer of Ron’s stature at WCU is an amazing thing, especially for the writing students who work with him,” he said.
The PEN/Faulkner honor is the second major award that Rash has garnered for his short story collection, published last year by Picador. The collection also was named one of 15 “notable books” of 2007 by The Story Prize committee. The Story Prize is presented annually to recognize the author of a book-length work of short fiction judged as the nation’s best.
Rash’s most recent novel, “The World Made Straight,” earned him the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for 2006 and was named one of the nation’s top 10 books for teenage readers by the Young Adult Library Services Association. His earlier prize-winning novels include “Saints at the River” and “One Foot in Eden.”
Rash’s next novel, “Serena,” will be published in September by Harper-Collins Press.
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