Awards / Honors


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Winner, Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society Prize for Best Novel, The Water Master, 2011

Distinguished Visting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, Rollins College, 2011

Residency Fellowship, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, 2011

2nd Place, Missouri Review Editor's Prize for Essay, Titanic Obsessions, 2010

Viebranz Writer-in-Residence, St. Lawrence University, 2010 - 2011

Residency Fellowship, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, 2009

Winner, AWP Award for the Novel, 2008 (declined)

Residency Fellowship, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, 2008

Winner, Flannery O'Connor Award for Drowning Lessons, 2007

2nd Place, AWP Award for Fiction, "Life Goes to the Movies," 2007

Finalist, Jefferson Press Prize, "Bodies of Water," 2007

Finalist, Ohio State University Press Prize, "Bodies of Water," 2007

Pushcart Prize nomination for "A Pre-Victorian Bathtub," 2007

Pushcart Prize nomination for "Greetings from Hollywood," 2007

Best Notable Essay, "Restaurant," 2007

Winner, Stage 3 New Plays Festival Award for A God in the House, 2007

Bronx Writers Center Fellowship Grant, 2006

Best American Essay, 2006, "Confessions of a Left-Handed Man."

James Jones First Novel Fellowship, 3rd place finalist for
Life Goes to the Movies, 2005

Finalist, Iowa Fiction Award for Bodies of Water, short story
collection, 2005

O. Henry Award nomination for "Color of the Sea," 2005

Pushcart Prize nomination for "Confessions of a Left-Handed Man," 2005 James Jones First Novel Fellowship, 5th place finalist, 2004

Residency Fellowship, Eastern Frontier Society, 2002

Finalist, Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction Award, "Man in the
White Car," 2001

Fellowship Award, Wesleyan Writer's Conference, 2001

Residency Fellowship, Blue Mountain Center, 1999

Residency Fellowship, Association Franco American, 1999

Pushcart Prize nomination for "The Sinking Ship Man," 1999

Finalist, Raymond Carver Contest for "Wednesday at the
Bagel Shop," 1995

Finalist, Eugene O'Neill National Playwright's Conference for
Landscape w/English Teacher, 1993

Finalist, Eugene O'Neill National Playwright's Conference for Mephistopheles Among the Mosquitoes, 1992

Mill Mountain Theatre New Plays Award for A God in the House, 1992

National Playwright's Conference Award for A God in the House, 1991

Charlotte Repertory New Plays Award for Night Blooming Serious, 1991

Virginia Duval-Mann Award for Night Blooming Serious, 1991

Finalist, Marvin Taylor Playwriting Award, Night Blooming Serious, 1990