Lafayette Professor Wins Writing Prize

Lee Upton's short story collection The Tao of Humiliation won't be published for nearly two years, but it's already won her an award.

The collection is the winner of the prestigious BOA Editions Short Fiction Prize, the college said in a news release.

The book -- one of 12 by Upton -- will be published in the spring of 2014.

“Upton tells a great story, yes, but she never bows to easy answers or pre-packaged characterizations,” BOA publisher Peter Collins said. “Instead, she offers up stories with true depth, insight, and enough twists to keep any reader enthralled. To write with such skill and sensitivity takes great life experience and the patience of a master writer.”

Upton, who is the college's writer-in-residence, has won numerous previous awards, including the Lyric Poetry Award and The Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award from the Poetry Society of America; the Pushcart Prize; the National Poetry Series Award; and the Miami University Novella Award.