Pamela Erens is L.A. Times Book Prize finalist

The Los Angeles Times has announced the finalists for its 2008 Book Prize, and one of the five contenders for the Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction is The Understory (Ironweed, 2007), a novel by Pamela Erens, author of "Sebastian," a short story in upstreet number three (p. 145). The Understory won the Ironweed Press Fiction Prize.

Pamela's short fiction has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and has appeared or is forthcoming in Chicago Review, Boston Review, The Literary Review, Bellingham Review, Skidrow Penthouse, and Redivider. Her work will be featured in the short-story anthology Visiting Hours (Press 53, 2008). A resident of New Jersey, she is the recipient of two New Jersey State Council for the Arts fellowships in fiction, most recently for 2007. Pamela has also published poetry, literary essays, articles and book reviews in a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, New York Newsday, Glamour, O: The Oprah Magazine, Michigan Quarterly Review, New England Review, Ms., and Mother Jones. A longtime editor at magazines including Glamour and 7 Days, she has won national awards for both her editing and her journalism.

upstreet wishes Pamela the best of luck in the competition. The Understory is available from several online sources, including Pamela's website.

Fletcher essay in Writer's Chronicle

"Writing a Shadowbox: Joseph Cornell and the Lyric Essayists," a writing craft essay by upstreet Creative Nonfiction Editor Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, appears in the March/April issue of The Writer's Chronicle. The essay, based on Fletcher's 2006 Vermont College of Fine Arts graduation lecture, is a sensitive and compelling exploration of the similarities between the lyric essay form and the intricate constructions of late Brooklyn visual artist Cornell. upstreet congratulates Harrison Fletcher on a fine piece of work, and hopes Fan Club members will take the time to enjoy this issue of the Chronicle.

Jim Shepard wins Story Prize

Fiction writer Jim Shepard, who was the subject of upstreet's first author interview, has been awarded this year's Story Prize for his short-story collection, Like You'd Understand, Anyway (Knopf, 2007). The book, a collection of eleven first-person stories covering subjects ranging from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster to a town's obsession with high-school football in contemporary Texas, was also one of five finalists for this year's National Book Award. Shepard, a 49-year-old English professor at Williams College in Williamstown, MA, was awarded $20,000, the largest first prize for any fiction contest in the country.

For those who live in the Berkshires and surrounding area, Shepard will read from his prize-winning work at 7:00 p.m. tonight (Thursday 6 March), at Gallery 51 in North Adams. Copies of his books will be available for purchase at the event, as will upstreet number one, which contains the interview with Shepard conducted by Frank Tempone in 2005.