- Pinckney Benedict
Pinckney Benedict (born 1964) is an American short-story writer and novelist whose work often reflects his
Appalachian background.Biography
Pinckney Benedict grew up on his family’s dairy farm in
Greenbrier County, West Virginia . He attended The Hill School in Pottstown, Pa. and later graduated fromPrinceton University , where he studied primarily withJoyce Carol Oates , in 1986, and from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1988.He has published two collections of short fiction ("Town Smokes", Ontario Review Press 1987, and "The Wrecking Yard", Nan A. Talese Books/Doubleday 1992) and a novel ("Dogs of God", Nan A. Talese Books/Doubleday 1992), all three of which were named Notable Books by the
New York Times , and all of which have been published in England, Germany, and France. He has two books, "Wild Bleeding Heart" (a novel, due out in 2009) and "Miracle Boy" (stories, due out in 2010), currently under contract with Nan A. Talese/Doubleday.His stories have appeared in, among other magazines and anthologies, "Esquire", "", "
StoryQuarterly ", "Ontario Review", "Appalachian Heritage", theO. Henry Award series (twice), the New Stories from the South series (twice, with a third appearance upcoming in the 2008 edition), thePushcart Prize series (three times), and "The Oxford Book of American Short Stories". Along with his wife, the novelist Laura Benedict ("Isabella Moon", Ballantine 2007), he has edited the poetry and fiction anthology "Surreal South" (Press 53 2007), which includes work from, among others, Robert Olen Butler, Joyce Carol Oates, William Gay, Ron Rash, and Rodney Jones. "Surreal South" is slated to become a biennial anthology series, with a second volume due in October 2009.He wrote the screenplay for the feature film "Four Days" (Cite Amerique 2000), which starred Colm Meaney (The Commitments, television’s Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Lolita Davidovich (Blaze), and William Forsythe (The Rock). He is co-founder and co-director of the Tinker Mountain Writers’ Workshop at
Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, which will held its fourth session in June 2008. He serves on the core faculty of the low-residency MFA program atQueens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. He has served on the writing faculties ofOberlin College , Princeton University, and Hollins University, as a McGhee Writing Fellow atDavidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, and as a Thurber House Fellow at theOhio State University .He is currently full professor in the English Department at
Southern Illinois University Carbondale .Published works
* "Town Smokes" (short stories), 1987
* "The Wrecking Yard" (short stories), 1992
* "Dogs of God" (novel), 1995
* "Surreal South" (edited anthology, with Laura Benedict), 2007Awards
He is the recipient, among other prizes, of a Literature Fellowship from the
National Endowment for the Arts , a fiction grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a Literary Fellowship from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, a Michener Fellowship from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, the Chicago Tribune’s Nelson Algren Award, and Britain’s Steinbeck Award.External links
* [http://www.hollins.edu/tmww Tinker Mountain Writers' Workshop at Hollins University, Roanoke, VA]
* [http://www.press53.com Press53, publishers of the anthology SURREAL SOUTH]
* [http://www.siuc.edu Southern Illinois University Carbondale]
* [http://www.laurabenedict.com Laura Benedict's home page]
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