Brad
Watson, Mississippi native and the author of an
award-winning story collection and novel, becomes
the University of Mississippi’s 12th John and
Renée Grisham Writer in Residence when
he assumes the post this fall. As Grisham Writer,
Watson
will teach one fiction workshop this fall and
another in the spring while he continues working
on a second novel and more stories. In return,
he’ll receive a stipend and housing from the University,
funded by an endowment from the Grishams.
“I’m
really looking forward to getting to know Oxford
and the students, and living and working in that
wonderful house,” Watson said, referring to the
Old Taylor Road house where Grisham writers have
lived for the past decade. “I like the idea of
the lingering presences of the fine writers who’ve
worked there before me. It’s a good augury.”
Born
and raised in Meridian, Watson won the Sue Kaufman
Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy
of Arts and Letters and the Great Lakes Colleges
New Writers Award for his first book, the story
collection Last Days of the Dog Men (Norton, 1996).
His second book, The Heaven of Mercury (Norton,
2002), received the Southern Book Critics Circle
Award in Fiction and the Mississippi Institute
of Arts and Letters Award in Fiction. The
novel was also a finalist for the National Book
Award.
Although
Watson hasn’t lived inMississippi since graduating
from
Mississippi State—except for a brief stint working
on a political campaign in the 1980s—he said he’s
“curious and happy to be back, to get in touch
with the people and places of Mississippi again.
I’m grateful to John and Renée Grisham
for creating this position, not just because I’m
benefitting from it this year, but because it’s
good for writing and the arts in Mississippi.
It’s another way to show the arts are still important
to the people who live here.”
Watson
is returning to Mississippifrom Alabama, where
he’s lived most of his adult life. After receiving
an MFA in creative writing from the University
of Alabama, Watson worked as a reporter and editor
for several of the state’s newspapers before taking
a teaching assignment in UA’s English Department.
In 1997 he accepted a teaching position at Harvard
University, where he served as the Director of
Creative Writing from 1999 to 2001. Since moving
back South from Cambridge, Watson has served as
visiting writer in residence at the University
of West Florida and the University of Alabama
at Birmingham.
“We’re
lucky to have someone of Brad Watson’s caliber
coming here this year,” said David Galef, professor
of English and administrator of the creative writing
program at Ole Miss. “He’s a Southern writer with
two well-received books under his belt, and the
Grisham Writer in Residence post should enable
him to
do more fine work.”
JENNIFER
SOUTHALL
