John Smolens Wins 2010 Michigan Author Award
MLA is pleased to announce that John Smolens is the winner of the 2010 Michigan Author Award. Smolens will accept his award Nov. 12 at the Michigan Author Award luncheon at MLA's 2010 Annual Conference in Traverse City. Luncheon tickets are available for $24.
The Michigan Author Award, now in its 19th year, is given in recognition of an outstanding body of fiction, nonfiction, poetry or playscripts. The author may be a resident of Michigan, a longtime resident of the state who has relocated or an author whose works are identified with the state because of the subject matter or by being set in Michigan.
Born a New Yorker, Smolens has lived in Michigan for many years. He has taught at Michigan State University and Western Michigan University, and since 1996 he has been at Northern Michigan University, where he is a professor of English, as well as the director of the university's Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program.
"John was chosen as our winner for many reasons. We found his skillful depiction of life in the Upper Peninsula and his description of the natural beauty of our state to be outstanding," said Anne Kabel, chair of the Michigan Author Award Committee.
Smolens has published five novels - Cold, The Invisible World, Fire Point, Angel's Head and Winter by Degrees - and one collection of short stories, My One and Only Bomb Shelter. His latest book, The Anarchist, a historical novel that depicts William McKinley's assassination, was published in 2009. His short stories and essays have been published in various magazines and newspapers, including Redbook, Yankee, Massachusetts Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Writer's Digest, Writer's Market, The Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe. His work has been published in the United Kingdom, and translations have appeared in the Netherlands, Italy, Greece and Turkey.
He holds degrees from Boston College, the University of New Hampshire and the University of Iowa. In 2006 he was the recipient of a Distinguished Faculty Award from Northern Michigan University.
