6/26/2001
EAST LANSING, Mich. - William S. Penn, Native American writer and professor of English at Michigan State University, was awarded the 2000 American Book Award for fiction for his novel "Killing Time with Strangers." Penn accepted the award in Chicago at the Book Expo America convention.
Penn is the author of several novels and collections, including "All My Sins are Relatives," "The Absence of Angels," "Feathering Custer" and "This is the World," a collection of short stories recently published by Michigan State University Press. Penn also is the editor of "As We Are Now: Mixblood Essays on Race and Identity" and "The Telling of the World: Native American Stories and Art."
"With 'Killing Time with Strangers' and an American Book Award, Penn has arrived as a significant contemporary Native American writer," said Patrick O'Donnell, chairperson of the Department of English at MSU. "His excellent writing about achieving an identity in a complex world is matched by his contributions to the College of Arts and Letters, and the students he teaches in his courses on narrative, literature and interdisciplinary studies.
"In awarding Penn this honor, the Before Columbus Foundation has acknowledged the quality and broad appeal of his work," O'Donnell said.
Penn has been the recipient of various awards, including the North American Indian Prose Award; the Critics Choice Award; a New York Foundation for the Arts award; the Stephen Crane Prize for fiction; a Michigan Arts Council award; and Writer of the Year (1997) and Editor of the Year (1998), both from the Worldcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers.
Penn teaches courses in Native American literature, modern fiction and integrative studies. He has been teaching at MSU since 1987.
"Killing Time with Strangers" is a Suntracks Book published by the University of Arizona Press. The American Book Awards are funded by the Before Columbus Foundation, a non-profit, public foundation established to promote American multicultural literature.