Bennett Sims (author)
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Bennett Sims | |
---|---|
Born | Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. |
Occupation | Writer, novelist |
Alma mater | Pomona College Iowa Writers' Workshop |
Bennett Sims is an American fiction writer with three book publications, the novel A Questionable Shape (2013) and the short story collections White Dialogues and Other Minds and Other Stories. He is an assistant professor at the University of Iowa.
Early life and education
[edit]Sims was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.[1][2] During high school, he spent three summers in the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts' boarding program, where he wrote fiction.[3] He graduated from Pomona College in 2008, where he was mentored by David Foster Wallace.[3] He later graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he was a Truman Capote Fellow,[4] and he served as a Provost's Postgraduate Visiting Writer at the University of Iowa from 2012-2013.[5]
Career
[edit]Sims's debut novel, A Questionable Shape, was published by Two Dollar Radio on May 1, 2013.[6] It won the 2014 Bard Fiction Prize, which included a $30,000 cash prize and a semester-long writer-in-residence appointment at Bard College.[7]
Reviews often referred to the book as a novel with zombies that is not a zombie novel,[8][9][10] set in Louisiana and referring opaquely to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.[11][12] It received generally positive reviews from media outlets including The Guardian,[9] Electric Literature,[13] Los Angeles Review of Books,[12] and Publishers Weekly.[14]
In 2017, Sims published his second book, a short story collection called White Dialogues, with Two Dollar Radio on September 12, 2017.[15] It received positive reviews from Publishers Weekly,[16] Kirkus Reviews,[17] and Bookforum.[18] After the publication of the book, Sims was a Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome in 2018-2019, where he worked on his third book, a novel.[19]
His stories have been published in The Iowa Review,[20] Story,[21] Conjunctions,[22] Ploughshares,[23] and the Pushcart Prize Anthology.[24]
Other Minds and Other Stories was named a finalist for The Story Prize.[25]
He currently teaches undergraduate fiction courses at the University of Iowa.[26]
References
[edit]- ^ "Bennett Sims". The Times. April 2, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
- ^ Weesam (April 2, 2022). "Bennett Sims". Worlds Without End. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
- ^ a b Loeb, Eryn (2013-05-01). "First: Bennett Sims's A Questionable Shape". Poets & Writers Magazine. 41 (3): 75–80.
- ^ "Bennett Sims". UK. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ "Past Provost's Postgraduate Visiting Writers and Fellows | English | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences | The University of Iowa". english.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ "A Questionable Shape". Two Dollar Radio. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ Relations, Bard Public. "Annual Bard Fiction Prize Is Awarded To Bennett Sims | Bard College Public Relations". www.bard.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ "Review: A Questionable Shape, by Bennett Sims". Electric Literature. 2013-06-03. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ a b "A Questionable Shape by Bennett Sims review – Zombies in Louisiana". the Guardian. 2014-07-11. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ Goldman, Nathan. "A Zombie Novel Without Zombies: An Interview with Bennett Sims | The American Reader". The American Reader. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ Full Stop. "Bennett Sims". Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ a b "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. 2013-07-28. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ "A Questionable Shape". Electric Literature. 2013-05-01. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ "A Questionable Shape by Bennett Sims". www.publishersweekly.com. 2013-05-01. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ "White Dialogues". Two Dollar Radio. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ "White Dialogues by Bennett Sims". Publishers Weekly. 2017-10-01. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ WHITE DIALOGUES | Kirkus Reviews.
- ^ "Top Shelf". Bookforum. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ Rome, American Academy in (20 February 2019). "Bennett Sims". American Academy in Rome. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ SIMS, BENNETT (2014). "City of Wolfmen". The Iowa Review. 44 (3): 3–6. doi:10.17077/0021-065X.7506. ISSN 0021-065X. JSTOR 43999703.
- ^ Haas, Katy (15 December 2015). "Story - 2015". www.newpages.com. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ "A Nightmare, by Bennett Sims". Conjunctions. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ Sims, Bennett (2018). "Pecking Order". Ploughshares. 44 (1): 174–183. doi:10.1353/plo.2018.0034. S2CID 201780413. Project MUSE 692956.
- ^ "Sims; Bennett – Story". www.storymagazine.org. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ^ "Here are this year's finalists for The Story Prize". LitHub. 9 January 2024. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
- ^ "Bennett Sims | English | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences | The University of Iowa". english.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-02.