Jayne Anne Phillips
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Jayne Anne Phillips (born July 19, 1952) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer who was born in the small town of
Buckhannon, West Virginia Buckhannon is the only incorporated city in, and the county seat of, Upshur County, West Virginia, United States. Located along the Buckhannon River, the population was 5,299 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city is southwe ...
. She is a former English professor at Rutgers-Newark from 2005 to 2020 and helped establish the MFA program at
Rutgers University-Newark Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was affi ...
.


Education

Phillips graduated from
West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia, United States. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Ins ...
, earning a
B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...
in 1974, and later received an M.F.A. in fiction from the
Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a graduate-level creative writing program. At 89 years, it is the oldest writing program offering a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in the United States. Its acceptance rate is between 2 ...
at the
University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...
.


Teaching

Phillips has held teaching positions at several colleges and universities, including
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
,
Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...
, Brandeis University, and
Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...
. She is currently Professor of English and founder/director of the
Rutgers University–Newark Rutgers University–Newark is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. It is located in Newark, New Jersey, Newark. Rutgers, fo ...
Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program. In 2007, ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...
'' magazine named Phillips' MFA program at Rutgers–Newark to its list of "Five Up-and-Coming" creative writing programs in the United States.


Writing career


Early career

During the mid-1970s, Phillips left West Virginia for California, embarking on a cross-country trip that would lead to numerous jobs, experiences, and encounters that would greatly affect her fiction, with its focus on lonely, lost souls and struggling survivors. In 1976, Truck Press published her first short story collection ''Sweethearts'', for which Phillips earned a
Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...
and the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines Fels Award. ''Sweethearts'' was followed in 1978 by a second small-press collection, ''Counting'', issued by Vehicle Editions. ''Counting'' earned Phillips greater recognition and the St. Lawrence Award. Her next collection, '' Black Tickets'', published by Delacorte/ Seymour Lawrence in 1979 when she was 26, was her first book of stories and brought her national attention as a talented and important writer. ''Black Tickets'' contained three types of stories: one-page fictions, inner soliloquies, and family dramas. These stories focused on her characters' loneliness, alienation, and unsuccessful searches for happiness. ''Black Tickets'' is mentioned in the 2006 lectures for the Modern Scholar series installment ''From Here to Infinity'', by Professor Michael D. C. Drout, who refers to her style—which he asserts was a direct influence on
William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ear ...
's 1984
cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...
novel ''
Neuromancer ''Neuromancer'' is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian author William Gibson. Set in a near-future dystopia, the narrative follows Case, a computer hacker enlisted into a crew by a powerful artificial intelligence and a traumatis ...
''—as a "headlong rush of story and description". Called "the unmistakable work of early genius" by Tillie Olsen, ''Black Tickets'' was praised by
Raymond Carver Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988) was an American short story writer and poet. He published his first collection of stories, '' Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?'', in 1976. His breakout collection, '' What We Talk About ...
: "These stories of America's disenfranchised – men and women light-years away from the American Dream – are quite unlike any in our literature... this book is a crooked beauty." ''Black Tickets'' was awarded the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction by the
American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqua ...
. In 1984, Phillips published her first novel, ''Machine Dreams'', "a remarkable novelistic debut and an enduring literary achievement," according to the ''New York Times''. ''Machine Dreams'' is a chronicle of the Hampson family from World War II to the Vietnam War. A
National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Jessica Lange Jessica Phyllis Lange (; born April 20, 1949) is an American actress. With a career spanning over five decades, she is known for her roles Jessica Lange on screen and stage, on stage and screen. She has received List of awards and nominati ...
, who wrote the screenplay. Nobel Prize winner
Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer (20 November 192313 July 2014) was a South African writer and political activist. She received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognised as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writing has ... been of very great ben ...
said that ''Machine Dreams'' "reaches one's deepest emotions. No number of books read or films seen can deaden one to the intimate act of art by which this wonderful young writer has penetrated the definitive experience of her generation." '' Fast Lanes'', a 1987 collection of ten stories, all first-person narratives, was praised as work by a writer "in love with the American language." One of the stories from ''Fast Lanes'', "Rayme," had been published in 1984 in ''Grantas
Dirty Realism Dirty realism is a term coined by Bill Buford of ''Granta'' magazine to define a North American literary movement. Writers in this sub-category of realism are said to depict the seamier or more mundane aspects of ordinary life in spare, unadorned ...
issue. In 1994, Phillips published her second novel, ''Shelter,'' a portrait of the loss of innocence at a West Virginia girls' camp in the summer of 1963. Called "a rich, vivid novel of moral and psychological complexity destined to stand alongside works by Faulkner and other Southern masters" (''Vanity Fair'') and "a defiant, frighteningly beautiful novel as disturbing as its setting, ''Shelter'' feels like Phillips' bid for immortality" (''Harper's Bazaar''), Shelter was awarded an Academy Award in Literature by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.


Later career

Phillips' next novel was '' MotherKind'' (2000), winner of the
Massachusetts Book Award Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode Island to it ...
, a story of intergenerational love and struggles within a family facing many changes. It is praised as one of the best novels about mothers and infants and the mother/daughter bond. '' Lark and Termite'', her fourth novel, was published by
Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers ...
in 2009 to positive reviews and was selected as one of five finalists for the
National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...
in fiction. ''Lark and Termite'' was also a Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle in Fiction; ''Lark et Termite'' (French translation by Marc Amfreville) was a Finalist for the Prix de Medici Etrangers (Paris). ''Quiet Dell'', Phillips' fifth novel, based on the true story of the 1931 murders of Chicago widow Asta Eicher and her three children in the hamlet of Quiet Dell, West Virginia, is a fictional portrayal of one of the nation's first sensationalized serial murders. ''Quiet Dell'' takes as its protagonist nine-year-old Annabel Eicher (victim, with her family, of con man Harry Powers, who found his victims through Depression-era matrimonial agencies) and Emily Thornhill, a ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'' journalist who commits herself to finding justice for the Eichers. A Kirkus Review Fiction Pick of the Year and ''Wall Street Journal'' Best Book of the Year, ''Quiet Dell'' was called "a story both splendid and irreparably sad" by the ''Chicago Tribune'': "As Phillips has proved throughout her decades of fiction writing, there is evil in the world but there are some who will stand in its way." ''Quiet Dell'' was praised by the ''Philadelphia Review of Books'': "It is the texture of the telling that elevates this recounting from true crime to the realm of literary eminence." Phillips' works have been translated and published in twelve foreign languages.


Awards and Honours

She is the recipient of a
Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...
, two
National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...
Fellowships, a Bunting Fellowship from the Bunting Institute of
Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...
, a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship, and numerous other awards. In 2024, she was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...
for her novel '' Night Watch''.


Selected works


Short fiction

* ''Sweethearts'' (1976), prose vignettes * ''Counting'' (1978), prose vignettes * ''Black Tickets'' (1979), short story collection * ''How Mickey Made It'' (1981), short story * ''The Secret Country'' (1982), short story * ''Fast Lanes'' (1987), short story collection


Novels

* ''Machine Dreams'' (1984) * ''Shelter'' (1994) * ''MotherKind'' (2000) * ''Lark and Termite'' (2008) * ''Quiet Dell ''(2013) *'' Night Watch'' (2023)


References


External links

*
Jayne Anne Phillips, An Interview
at
Narrative Magazine ''Narrative Magazine'' is a non-profit digital publisher of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and art founded in 2003 by Tom Jenks and Carol Edgarian. ''Narrative'' publishes weekly and provides educational resources to teachers and students; sub ...

Review of Lark and Termite
in
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

Q&A: Phillips Leads Newark's New MFA
at
Poets & Writers Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organizations in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The organization publishes a bi-monthly magazine called ''Poets & Writers Magazine'' ...

Faculty Page
at
Rutgers University–Newark Rutgers University–Newark is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. It is located in Newark, New Jersey, Newark. Rutgers, fo ...
* at The Short Review
''Venus on Pikes Peak: Jayne Anne Phillips''
in ''The Boston Phoenix'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Jayne Anne 1952 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American women novelists American women short story writers People from Buckhannon, West Virginia West Virginia University alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Novelists from West Virginia Writers from Boston 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers Novelists from Massachusetts Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners