Award places UF professor in category with John Updike, more

May 13, 2010

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida English professor Mary Robison has been awarded the 2009 Rea Award for the Short Story. In addition to the award, Robison will receive $30,000.

Robison, a Guggenheim Fellow and faculty member of the Creative Writing program, is the author of several short story collections, including “Tell Me: Thirty Stories,” “Days,” and “Believe Them.” She won the Los Angeles Times Book prize for her novel “Why Did I Ever,” and her novel “One D.O.A., One on the Way” was selected for the 2009 Summer reading list of the Oprah Winfrey book club.

The award judges, Andrea Barnett, Amy Hempel, and Jayne Anne Phillips, commended Robison’s stories for “their lean, cool ferocity and their wry takes on people in pivotal moments.”

The Rea Award was founded in 1986 by writer Michael M. Rea, a passionate reader and collector of short stories. Recipients are selected annually for making a “significant contribution in the discipline of the short story as an art form.” Previous winners include Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike and Eudora Welty.