Dana Spiotta, an associate professor of English at Syracuse University, has received $50,000 for winning the St. Francis College Literary Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in fiction writing, for her recent novel, “Innocents and Others.”

Spiotta wrote the book in Syracuse. One of the fictional characters, Jelly, also lives in the city, and much of the book takes place in upstate New York.

Per The Chicago Tribune, the book depicts Meadow and Carrie, old high school friends who become successful filmmakers, and Jelly, a temporarily blind telemarketer who seeks attention from influential men through phone calls. Meadow decides to make a film about Jelly.

The SU professor started writing fictional stories when she was 7 years old. She became serious about writing in her mid-20s though, publishing her first novel when she was 34.

Spiotta’s last three novels also won awards. “Lightning Field” was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. “Eat the Document” was a National Book Award finalist and won the Rosenthal Foundation Award. “Stone Arabia” was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Each book, published through Scribner, took five years to write.

Sponsored by St. Francis College, the biennial award is awarded to people who have published three to five fictional works and support the literary community. St. Francis College encourages mid-career authors to enter submissions.

The award is one of her greatest honors, Spiotta said.

“Although first novels get a lot of prizes and attention, I find that a writer’s later novels are usually more accomplished than the first or second novel,” she said.

Ellen Litman, associate director of creative writing at the University of Connecticut; René Steinke, director of the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University; and Jeffery Renard Allen, professor of English at the University of Virginia, were jury members for the 2017 award. They are all writers themselves.

“It was a unanimous decision,” Steinke said.

According to the judge’s citations, Spiotta’s use of “ingenious arrangement of fragmented narratives and invented sources” set her work apart from others.

“I write weird and sometimes difficult novels,” Spiotta said.

Christopher Kennedy, director of SU’s MFA creative writing program, said he was pleased by the award. The recognition exposes Spiotta’s work to a broader audience and brings positive attention to the creative writing program, Kennedy said.

Spiotta said the award prize money is also vital.

“Money is important because it encourages taking artistic risks without worrying about selling books and getting money for your writing,” she said.

In the near future, Spiotta plans to continue writing a new novel and short story, she said.

Published on October 22, 2017 at 10:59 pm

Contact Jonathan: jnchau@syr.edu