Awards and Recognition

A Common Person and Other Stories, a collection of short stories, selected by the University of Notre Dame's Creative Writing Program as winner of the Richard Sullivan Prize for short fiction. Judge Valerie Sayers, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English.

Poetry collection The Likes of Us a semi-finalist for the 2019 Cowles Poetry Book Prize at Southeast Missouri State University Press.

Arts and Letters prize for fiction, for "A Common Person."  Judge,  Melissa Pritchard. 2018.

Leapfrog Press 2018 Fiction Contest, Long-listed and Honorable Mention for short story collection A Common Person. Judge, Marie-Helene Bartino.

The Universe Playing Strings, Finalist (one of six) for the 2017 Binghamton University John Gardner Fiction Book Award. 

The Dancer's Son and Other Stories, Finalist (one of ten) for Richard Sullivan Prize in Fiction (University of Notre Dame) 2015 for 2016.

History & Fiction: Dueling Narratives, A Celebration of the Book, sponsored by Missouri Center for the Book and Stephens College, October 10, 2009.

Capital Read awarded to An Absolute Gentleman, Missouri River Regional Library, Jefferson City, Missouri 2008.

Rare Conversations, (one of twelve authors), benefit sponsored by Johnson County (Kansas) Library Foundation, Rainy Day books, Overland Park, Kansas, 2008

Finalist, for An Absolute Gentleman, for William Rockhill Nelson Award, sponsored by the Kansas City Star and the Writers Place to honor literary excellence by Kansas and Missouri writers.

Literary Fiction Award, University of Michigan, for A Near-Perfect Gift, collection of short fiction,  Judges Laura Kasischke and Eileen Pollack 2005

Zone 3, Austin Peay State Unversity, Fiction Award for "Brute," 2006.

Southern Humanities Review, Auburn University, Theodore Christian Hoepfner Award for "A Near-Perfect Gift," 2000.

Ohio State University Press Prize in Short Fiction, Bird Woman and Other Stories, finalist, 1997.

Writer's Digest Literary Fiction Award, “The Pulse of the World,”1st place 1996

Missouri Authors' Recognition Day, Jefferson City, 1993.

Finalist, NCTE Promising Researcher Award, 1992

Honorable Mention in Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writer Award, 1992 for Sweet Angel Band.

Willa Cather Award, Helicon Nine Editions, for Sweet Angel Band, collection of short fiction. Judge, Robley Wilson, Jr. 1991