Awards: Literary

FELLOWSHIPS and AWARDS

• NAACP Award of Excellence for outstanding commitment in advancing the culture and
  causes for communities of color; May 2018
• Harvard University; Center for the Study of World Religions;
  Resident Senior Fellow; 1999-2000
• Harvard University; W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research;
  Resident Fellow; 1999-2000
• Guggenheim Fellowship; 1995
• Radcliffe College and Harvard University; Bunting Institute fellow; 1992-93

WRITING AWARDS

• INDIE Book Award; for memoir Unseen Worlds: Adventures at the Crossroads of Vodou Spirits and
   Latter-day Saints; May 2020
• Glimmer Train Press Inc.; Honorable Mention award for, “The Law of the Land”;
  October competition, Family Matters; 2013
• Iowa Short Fiction Award; University of Iowa Press; Winner
  for collection, The Company of Heaven: Stories from Haiti; 2010
• University of Georgia Press; Flannery O’Connor Award
  Finalist for the short story collection, The House of Fossils; 2008
• Glimmer Train Press Inc.; Very short fiction Award for The Tablecloth;
  Honorable Mention; Feb. 2009
• The University of Iowa Press; Iowa Short Fiction awards
  Finalist for the short story collection, The House of Fossils; 2007
• Tartt Award; University of West Alabama;
  Winner for the short story collection, The House of Fossils; 2007
• Eastern Washington University Press; Spokane Prize;
  Semi-finalist for the short story collection, The House of Fossils; 2006
• Best American Short Stories 2003; Walter Mosley Editor; 2003
• Best American Short Stories 2001; listed in Distinguished Stories; 2001
• Crab Orchard Award Series in Poetry; Southern Illinois University Press;
  Winner for collection, Crossroads and Unholy Water; 2000
• The Grolier poetry prize; 1st prize winner. Cambridge, MA; 1993
• Academy of American Poets; Walt Whitman Prize;
  Finalist for collection, Crossroads and Unholy Water; 1997
• Southern Illinois University Press; Crab Orchard Award Series in Poetry;
  Semi-finalist for collection, Crossroads and Unholy Water; 1998
• Sarabande Books; Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry;
  Finalist for collection, Crossroads and Unholy Water; 1998
• Untenberg Poetry Center; “Discovery,” The Nation contest;
  Semi-finalist for collection, Crossroads and Unholy Water; 1998
• Silverfish Review Press; Gerald Cable Book Award;
  Finalist for collection, Crossroads and Unholy Water; 1998
• Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize;
  Semi-finalist for collection, Crossroads and Unholy Water; 1999
• Glimmer Train Press Inc.; Very Short Fiction Award;
  Finalist for, Life Outside my Own; 2001