10/17/11
Prestigious Writing Honors Go To Visiting SLU Prof
CANTON - On October 12, works by St. Lawrence University Viebranz Visiting Professor of Creative Writing Mark Slouka were celebrated in two separate venues in New York City.
Slouka's 2010 book Essays from the Nick of Time: Reflections and Refutations won the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, for "a book of essays that exemplifies the dignity and esteem of the essay form." It is the first time in five years that the organization has bestowed the award.
On the same night, Slouka's story "The Hare's Mask" was read aloud by a professional actor at Symphony Space in New York. The story was included in the volume The Best American Short Stories 2011, edited by author Geraldine Brooks, and Brooks chose Slouka's story and one other from the anthology for the Symphony Space/National Public Radio series.
Harper's published an essay of Slouka's in 2009, "Dehumanized: When math and science rule the school," about declining emphasis on the arts and humanities in education, that has been widely read and quoted.
Slouka is the author of the novels God's Fool, named a Best Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Visible World; the short-story collection Lost Lake, a New York Times Notable Book in 1998; and the nonfiction work War of the Worlds. Three of his essays have been selected for inclusion in The Best American Essays, and his short story "The Woodcarvers Tale" won the National Magazine Award for fiction. Slouka, a Columbia University graduate, is at work on a third novel and will read from recent work in the University's Writers Series on April 26, 2012.
English department website
