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Stephanie Powell Watts

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Watts at the 2017 Texas Book Festival

Stephanie Powell Watts is an American author. She won a Whiting Award in 2013[1] and an Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence in 2012[2] for her book We are Taking Only what We Need, a collection of 11 stories that chronicles the lives of African-Americans in North Carolina.[3] Her short fiction has been included in two volumes of the Best New Stories from the South anthology and honored with a Pushcart Prize.

Watts' debut novel, No One Is Coming to Save Us, was published by Ecco in 2017. The story follows the return of a successful native son to his home in North Carolina and his attempt to join the only family he ever wanted but never had. As Watts describes it, "Imagine The Great Gatsby set in rural North Carolina, nine decades later, with desperate black people."

Life

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Watts was born and raised in Lenoir, North Carolina,[4] in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She received her BA from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and her PhD from the University of Missouri.[5] She lives with her husband and son in Pennsylvania where she is an associate professor of English at Lehigh University.[6][7]

Works

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  • We are Taking Only what We Need BkMk Press, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2011, ISBN 9781886157798[8][9]
  • No One Is Coming to Save Us, Ecco, 2017, 978-0062472984[10]

References

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  1. ^ "Stephanie Powell Watts | WHITING AWARDS". whiting.org. 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  2. ^ Chris Waddington. "Nation's biggest prize for African-American writers goes to Stephanie Powell Watts". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved 19 September 2015. "It would be enough if this award was simply about excellence and a $10,000 prize, but it means so much more that Ernest Gaines' name is attached to it. It adds gravitas. It connects all of us to the legacy of a writer that we grew up reading. Even people who don't know the prize immediately know who he is."
  3. ^ "Fiction Book Review: We Are Taking Only What We Need by Stephanie Powell Watts". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 19 September 2015. In a strong debut, Watts chronicles in 11 stories the lives of black North Carolinians who come from or lived near the "dark houses out on tangled dirt roads on the fringes of the county."
  4. ^ BookPage Interview
  5. ^ "Lehigh University professor wins major writing award for debut book". lehighvalleylive.com. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  6. ^ "Stephanie Powell Watts | NC Literary Festival". lib.ncsu.edu. 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  7. ^ "Stephanie Powell Watts". lehigh.edu. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  8. ^ "Coming to terms with coming home". Columbia Daily Tribune. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  9. ^ "We Are Taking Only What We Need". Oprah.com. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  10. ^ Watts, Stephanie Powell. "No One Is Coming to Save Us - Stephanie Powell Watts - Hardcover". HarperCollins US. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
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External videos
video icon Stephanie Powell Watts - We Are Taking Only What We Need, July 24, 2013
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