Assistant Professor of English Jon Pineda and University of Mary Washington alumna Kristen Green are among the nine finalists for the 2016 Library of Virginia Literary Awards, announced Tuesday, Aug. 9. Claudia Emerson, a former UMW faculty member who died in 2014, is also a finalist.
Jon Pineda, Poetry
Pineda is a finalist in poetry for “Little Anodynes.” He has been an assistant professor within the Department of English, Linguistics and Communication since the fall of 2014. He is recipient of the 2016 UMW Alumni Association Outstanding Young Faculty Member Award. His other poetry includes “The Translator’s Diary,” winner of the 2007 Green Rose Prize in Poetry from New Issues, and “Birthmark,” winner of the 2003 Crab Orchard Award Series in Poetry Open Competition. Pineda has a master’s of fine arts from Virginia Commonwealth University and a bachelor’s degree from James Madison University.
Kristen Green, Nonfiction
Green is a finalist in nonfiction for “Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County.” Since graduating from UMW in 1995, Green has worked for The Boston Globe, The San Diego Tribune and the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Having grown up in Prince Edward County, Green combined investigative journalism and memoir to write about the civil rights battle in the county and her family’s role in it.
Claudia Emerson, Poetry
Emerson is a finalist in poetry for her posthumously published collection “Impossible Bottle.” A longtime and beloved faculty member at UMW, Emerson died in December 2014. During her tenure, she received the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her collection “Late Wife,” and she was named Virginia’s Poet Laureate in 2008 — a position she held for two years. Emerson was instrumental in the establishment of the creative writing concentration as an option for English majors. When she left UMW, after serving on the faculty here for 15 years, she held the Arrington Distinguished Chair in Poetry.
The awards are presented annually to outstanding Virginia authors in the categories of poetry, fiction and nonfiction. The nonfiction category includes authors whose book is about a Virginia subject.
There are also People’s Choice Awards for fiction and nonfiction, as well as a Literary Lifetime Achievement Award to recognize outstanding and long-lasting contributions to literature by a Virginian. Two additional prestigious awards—the Carole Weinstein Poetry Prize and the Art in Literature: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award—are also recognized at the library’s annual Literary Awards Celebration.
The awards will be presented at the library’s annual awards celebration on Saturday, Oct. 15.
