English Prof Wins "Fineline" Award for Creative Writing

English Prof Wins "Fineline" Award for Creative Writing

Mid-American Review has just announced that Utah State University assistant professor of English Christopher Cokinos has won the prestigious Fineline Award for creative writing. The judge for the contest was Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Stephen Dunn, author of several poetry collections. Dunn selected Cokinos's lyric essay "Blue False Indigo" from 2,000 entries.

"The title is for one of my beloved flowers of the tallgrass prairie," said Cokinos. "The piece is a lyric exploration of the emotional textures of divorce, as well as of the solace of the night sky and the prairie."

Cokinos, editor of "Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing," and author of "Hope is the Thing With Feathers," is currently doing research for his new book on meteorites. Funded by the National Science Foundation, he'll travel to Antarctica for the austral summer season to study with a team of scientists and writers in preparation for his new book, under contract with Tarcher/Putnam, titled "Fallen Sky: Eccentrics and Scientists in Pursuit of Shooting Stars."

Cokinos has been on the faculty in Utah State’s department of English since August 2002.

"Christopher Cokinos brings tremendous energy to our goals for creative writing," said Department Head Jeff Smitten. "His work linking scientific topics and creative writing reveals natural relationships between the humanities and the sciences, and helps to build bridges between academic disciplines. We are fortunate to have him at Utah State."