Jaimee Wriston Colbert
Distinguished Professor
English, General Literature and Rhetoric
Background
Jaimee Wriston Colbert is the author of six award-winning books of fiction: Vanishing Acts, Finalist for the 2018 American Fiction Prize and the Indie Excellence Award in Literary Fiction; Wild Things, winner of the CNY 2017 Book Award in Fiction and the 2018 International Book Award in Fiction-Short Stories; Shark Girls, Finalist for the USA Book News Best Books of 2010 and ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year; Dream Lives of Butterflies, winner of the IPPY Gold Medal Award for story collections; Climbing the God Tree, winner of the Willa Cather Fiction Prize; and Sex, Salvation, and the Automobile, winner of the Zephyr Prize. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including The Gettysburg Review, New Letters, and Prairie Schooner, and broadcast on “Selected Shorts.” She was awarded the 2012 Ian MacMillan Fiction Prize for “Things Blow Up,” a story in Wild Things. Other stories won the Jane’s Stories Award and the Isotope Editor’s Fiction Prize.
Education
- MA, Brown University
- BA, University of Washington
Research Interests
- 18-19th century Highland Clearances
- Environmental science
- Nature writing
- Climate change
Teaching Interests
- Fiction workshops
- Contemporary Literature
Awards
- 2018: Wild Things won the International Book Award in Fiction-Short Stories; Vanishing Acts is Finalist for the American Fiction Prize, family saga, and the 2018 Indie Excellence Award in Literary Fiction. Vanishing Acts selected as Featured Book on eco-fiction.com: Authors who Tackle Climate Change.
- 2017: Wild Things won the CNY 2017 Book Award in Fiction; Finalist for the American Book Fest Best Books of 2017; longlisted for 2017 Chautauqua Prize.
- 2016: "Things Blow Up" Finalist for the Gertrude Stein Award in Fiction.
- 2015: "Things Blow Up" Finalist for the Sequestrum Editor's Reprint Award; "Wild Things" (story) Featured Story in Solstice Summer Awards Issue.
- 2014: "The Hoodie's Tale" Finalist for Glimmer Train's Very Short Fiction Award; "Suicide Birds" Finalist/Honorable Mention for the Gabehart Fiction Prize.
- 2013: Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service, Binghamton University.
- 2012: "Things Blow Up" won the Ian MacMillan Fiction Prize.
- 2011: "We Are All In Pieces," Special Mention in the 2011 Pushcart Prize Anthology; Finalist for the Julia Peterkin Fiction Prize.
- 2010: Shark Girls Finalist for the USA Book News Best Books of 2010 Awards and the ForeWord Magzine's Book of the Year Awards, nominated for the ALA Notable Books of 2010.
- 2009: "We Are All In Pieces" won the Editor's Fiction Prize - Isotope, A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing; "The Man Who Jumped" won the Jane's Stories National Award for the Short Story.
- 2008: Dream Lives of Butterflies won the gold medal/first place in the 12th Annual Independent Publisher Book Awards - Short Stories Fiction.
- 2007: Dream Lives of Butterflies Finalist in the USA Book News Best Books Awards; ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards and listed in the Kansas City Star's "100 Best Books of the Year."
- 2002: Climbing The God Tree selected by the Maine Humanities Council to adapt into canon of Maine Literature Programs, along with Richard Russo's The Empire Falls and Annie Proux's Pulitizer Prize winning Shipping News.
- 1999: Awarded the Fiction Fellowship - Wesleyan Writers Conference; selected in national competition to serve as University of Missouri-St. Louis, "Distinguished Visiting Writer."
- 1997: Climbing The God Tree won the Willa Cather Fiction Prize, a national/international competition.
- 1996: Finalist, Katherine Anne Porter Fiction Prize.
- 1995: Won the Delogue Award for an "Outstanding Woman Fiction Writer" - Stonecoast Writers' Conference.
- 1994: Won the Zephyr Literary Book Prize, national competition, for Sex, Salvation, and the Automobile.
