spotlight
September 12: Paisley Rekdal, nonfiction reading – 7 PM, Buttrick 102
Sep. 9, 2024—♦ September 12: Paisley Rekdal, Poetry, Buttrick Hall 102 Paisley Rekdal is the author of essays and poetry including Animal Eye, Imaginary Vessels, Nightingale, and West: A Translation, longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award in Poetry and winner of the 2024 Kingsley Tufts Prize. Her newest works of...
MFA Alum Rita Bullwinkel (’16) Celebrates Success of Latest Novel ‘Headshot’
Sep. 6, 2024—Congratulations to Vanderbilt MFA Rita Bullwinkel (’16), whose novel is receiving national attention and acclaim. An unexpected tragedy at a community pool. A family’s unrelenting expectation of victory. The desire to gain or lose control; to make time speed up or stop; to be frighteningly, undeniably good at something. Each of the eight teenage girl...
2024-2025 Gertrude and Harold Vanderbilt Reading Series
Sep. 6, 2024— 2024-2025 Gertrude and Harold Vanderbilt Reading Series The Vanderbilt Department of English and Creative Writing Program is pleased to announce the Gertrude and Harold Vanderbilt Reading Series 2024-2025. Click here for the official press release with more details about this year’s series. All readings begin at 7:00 pm on Thursdays. Fall 2024 ♦...
2024 Merrill Moore Prizewinners Announced
Apr. 29, 2024—Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Merrill Moore Prize
2024 Academy of American Poets Prize Winner and Honorable Mentions Announced
Apr. 17, 2024—2024 Academy of American Poets Prize Contest Winner and Honorable Mentions Congratulations to this year’s winner of the 2024 Academy of American Poets Prize Contest, Sydney Mayes, and to the students receiving honorable mentions for their work, Carson Colenbaugh and Ajla Dizdarevic. Winner: Sydney Mayes, GS, MFA, for “the walker system” Honorable Mentions: Ajla Dizdarevic,...
MFA Alum Claire Jiménez’s Novel Wins 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
Apr. 17, 2024—Vanderbilt MFA Alum Claire Jiménez’s novel What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez (Grand Central) has been selected as the winner of the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. This year’s finalists included Jamel Brinkley’s Witness, Henry Hoke’s Open Throat, Alice McDermott’s Absolution, and Colin Winnette’s Users. The judges—Xochitl Gonzalez, Alan Michael Parker, and Lynn Steger Strong—considered 445 eligible novels and short...
Lorrie Moore’s Novel ‘I Am Homeless if This Is Not My Home’ Named Winner of National Book Critics Circle Award
Jan. 29, 2024—Lorrie Moore’s novel, I Am Homeless if This Is Not my Home, has been announced as the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. The novel was also named a “Best Book of 2023” by The New Yorker, as part of a list “of the most captivating, notable, brilliant, thought-provoking, and talked-about...
Akshya Saxena Awarded MLA First Book Prize
Dec. 6, 2023—Akshya Saxena’s Vernacular English has been awarded the MLA First Book Prize! The prize committee writes of Vernacular English: A highly original contribution to postcolonial studies and comparative literary studies, Akshya Saxena’s Vernacular English: Reading the Anglophone in Postcolonial Indiaargues that English in India has, since Independence, served as a language of everyday life and...
Major Jackson Wins 2023 Academy of American Poets Fellowship for Distinguished Poetic Achievement
Sep. 21, 2023—Congratulations to Major Jackson, who has received the Academy of American Poets Fellowship for distinguished poetic achievement! Prof. Jackson is a Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program in the English Department at Vanderbilt University. He also serves as the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities. Click here to see the...
MFA Alumnus Interviewed by NPR
May. 17, 2023—This Spring, alumnus Claire Jiménez (MFA, 2014) was interviewed on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition about her debut novel What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez. Set during the 2008 recession, the novel is about a Puerto Rican family in Staten Island who discover that their long-missing sister is potentially alive and a reality TV show contestant....