JILL MCCORKLE
Jill McCorkle has the distinction of having published her first two novels on the same day in 1984. Of these novels, the New York Times Book Review said: "one suspects the author of The Cheer Leader is a born novelist. With July 7th, she is also a full grown one." Since then she has published four other novels (her latest, Life After Life) and four collections of short stories. Five of her nine previously published books have been named New York Times notable books. Four of her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories and several have been collected in New Stories from the South. Her story "Intervention" is included in the Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. An essay, “Cuss Time,” originally published in The American Scholar was selected for Best American Essays. McCorkle has received the New England Booksellers Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature and the North Carolina Award for Literature. She is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. McCorkle has taught at Harvard, Brandeis and NC State. She is core faculty in the Bennington Writing Seminars and frequently teaches in the Sewanee Writers Program.
© Tom Rankin