Fiction Writer Matthew Pitt Awarded the D.H. Lawrence Fellowship

Matthew Pitt has been awarded the 2013 D.H. Lawrence Fellowship. As the fellow, Pitt will give a reading on Monday, July 15 at 12:30 p.m. at the Sagebrush Inn Conference Center. He will be reading from his debut story collection, Attention Please Now. About Attention Please Now, Brian Morton called it, “A remarkable debut novel by a brilliant young writer.”

"I've heard many glowing reports about the conference from peers and friends. Being a part of this year's gathering will feel like Christmas in July," Matthew said after receiving news that he had been selected as this year's fellow.

Matthew Pitt is a native of St. Louis. His first book of fiction, the short story collection ATTENTION PLEASE NOW, won the Autumn House Press Fiction Prize. It was also a Writers League of Texas Book Award finalist. Matthew is a graduate of Hampshire College and New York University, where he was a New York Times fellow. His stories have appeared in such journals, magazines and anthologies as: Oxford American, The Southern Review, The Cincinnati Review, Colorado Review, New Letters, Epoch, Witness, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Harcourt's BEST NEW AMERICAN VOICES. His work has been cited in the BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES, BEST AMERICAN NONREQUIRED READING, and PUSHCART PRIZE anthologies. His stories have won prizes from Inkwell (judged by Martha Cooley), the Salem College Center for Women Writers (judged by Ellen Gilchrist) and The Madison Review.

The D.H. Lawrence fellowship is given each year to an emerging writer of poetry or prose with one book in print or at press. Originally established to sustain a living tradition of artistic creation in a place the late English writer so loved, the D.H. Lawrence Fellowship is the most prestigious of the Taos Summer Writers’ Conference awards and scholarships.

Past recipients of the fellowship include: Kristen-Paige Madonia (2012), Darlin' Neal of Orlando, FL (2011), Andrew Kozma of Houston, Texas (2010), Merrill Feitell (2009), Nancy Pagh of Bellingham, Washington (2008), Philip Cioffari (2007), Kelly Magee of Columbus, Ohio (2006); Carl Marcum of Chicago, Illinois (2005); Lisa Goett of Taos, New Mexico (2004); Sarah Jane Smith of Miami, Florida (2003); Andrea Hollander Budy of Mountain View, Arkansas (2002); Pamela Gemin of Oshkosh, Wisconsin (2001); and Charlotte Holmes of State College, Pennsylvania (2000).

We are so excited to welcome Matthew to this year's conference!