FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 18, 2006   #120
Contact: Nick Barron; (816) 235-5251; barronn@umkc.edu

Benaron wins literary award from BkMk Press

Tucson resident named winner of 2006 G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – BkMk Press of the University of Missouri-Kansas City is pleased to announce Naomi Benaron the 2006 winner of the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction. Benaron will receive $1,000 and book publication from BkMk Press in 2007.

Benaron’s manuscript, Love Letters From a Fat Man, was selected by Stuart Dybek, this year’s final judge for the Chandra Prize. Benaron recently earned her master of fine arts degree from Antioch University in Los Angeles and holds a master of sciences degree from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography and a bachelor of sciences degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Benaron’s fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in New Millennium Writings, Calyx, Red Rock Review, and PRISM. Her short stories have also won the Lorian Hemingway, Juniper Creek and Martindale Literary prizes. A one-time nationally ranked triathlete, she still swims, runs and bikes. She is currently writing a novel about Rwanda, where she has traveled. This fall, she will begin teaching at Pima Community College in Tucson.

Dybek is a professor of English at Western Michigan University and the author of several volumes of fiction and poetry. His many awards include the PEN/Bernard Malamud Prize.

For information on how to submit work for the 2007 prize, log onto www.umkc.edu/bkmk or send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction, BkMk Press, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 5101 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO 64110. The 2007 submission deadline is January 16.

Last year’s winner of the Chandra Prize, Kerry Neville Bakken Necessary Lies , which was selected by Hilary Masters, will be published by BkMk Press in August. BkMk Press founded the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction in 2001 in memory of Chandra, a deceased professor at UMKC. BkMk Press was founded in 1971 and became part of UMKC in 1983. The Press publishes fine literature by contemporary authors. Financial assistance for BkMk press is provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, by UMKC and by private donations.

The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), one of four University of Missouri campuses, is a public university serving more than 14,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students.  UMKC engages with the community and economy based on a three-part mission: visual and performing arts, health sciences, and urban affairs.

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This information is available to people with speech or hearing impairments by calling Relay Missouri at (800) 735-2966 (TT) or (800) 735-2466 (voice).