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Sohrab Homi Fracis received his M.A. degree in
English from the University of North Florida in 1993. As he
tells it, "After several years as a programmer-analyst
contracted to Fortune 100 companies such as Ford Motor Company
in Detroit, I heard my calling to become a writer. I studied
for an M.A. in English, emphasis in creative writing, at the
University of North Florida, where I now teach creative writing,
passing on my knowledge and experience to aspiring writers."
Sohrab is the first Indian author to win the Iowa Short Fiction
Award, described by the New York Times Book Review
as "among the most prestigious literary prizes America
offers." The University of Iowa Press published his award-winning
book, Ticket to Minto: Stories of India and America,
in 2001.
A sampling of praise for Ticket to Minto:
"A reminder of how satisfying the short story form can
be...demonstrate[s] sophistication, subtlety and complexity...reflect[s]
a wide range of influences—from the somber realism of
Somerset Maugham to the hip, colloquial humor of Junot Diaz...the
work of an impressive new talent." — Publishers
Weekly
"Stunning in its breadth and scope of language and description...a
fresh voice in South Asian fiction....One can grow tired of
Rushdie wannabes, mother-in-law stereotypes and village parodies.
Fracis's writing is brutally honest, exposing sinew and nerves
and getting at the heart of the matter." — India
Currents
Among his other honors and accomplishments, Sohrab has won
an Individual Artist Fellowship in Literature/Fiction from
the Florida Endowment for the Arts in 1999; the Walter E.
Dakin Fellowship in Fiction at the Sewanee Writers' Conference
in Sewanee, Tennessee, in 2002; and a Key West Literary Seminar
Scholarship to the 22nd annual seminar in Key West, Florida,
"Crossing Borders: The Immigrant Voice in American Literature,"
in 2004.
You can follow Sohrab as writer and teacher by visiting his
website at http://www.fracis.com. |
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Lee Quinby received her B.A. degree in English from the University
of North Florida in 1977 and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English
and American Studies from Purdue University in 1979 and 1984
respectively. Presently she is Professor of English and American
Studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New
York, where she holds the Donald R. Harter Chair in Humanities.
Lee's scholarly interests include American Apocalyptic and
Millennial Thought, Feminist Theory, Foucauldian Theory, and
Technoculture. She has published five books, most recently
Millennial Seduction: A Skeptic Confronts
Apocalyptic Culture (Cornell University Press, 1999)
and Anti-Apocalypse: Exercises in
Genealogical Criticism (University of Minnesota Press,
1994). The working title of her book-in-progress is The
Care of the Global Citizen: Essays on Globalization and Freedom.
She guest edited a special issue of Women's Studies Quarterly
(Fall/Winter 2001) on "Women Confronting the New Technologies."
Among her other honors and accomplishments, Lee has been
a Senior Fulbright Professor in Critical Theory at the University
of Athens, Greece, and the Caroline Werner Gannett Professor
of the Humanities at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
She has given invited lectures at the University of Pennsylvania,
Boston University, and Columbia University, among other institutions;
has been interviewed on CNN and NPR; and was an invited guest
at the White House on the occasion of "Millennium Evening."
As a teacher, Lee has this to say: "My courses in all
fields reflect my interest in the intersection of ethics,
truth, and power relations. Whether it is a course on Feminist
Theory, Sexuality and American Literature, or an Introduction
to American Studies called 'America: I, Eye, Aye,' I try to
find ways for students to recognize the forces that have shaped
their identities—such as gender, race, nationality,
and media—and to discern the truths of themselves in
order to ask if they might be more free, more ethical, and
more powerful." |
