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