By Erin Wood
At a November gala at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum in Little Rock, Little Rock fiction writer Jen Fawkes was celebrated as the 36th winner of the Porter Fund Literary Prize.
Established in 1984, The Porter Prize is a nonprofit supporting Arkansas writers and poets, founded by Phillip McMath in honor of Dr. Ben Kimpel. Past winners include our current Arkansas Poet Laureate Jo McDougall, Kevin Brockmeier, and Donald Harington.
Beyond Fawkes’ life as a fiction writer whose work has appeared in One Story, Lit Hub, Crazyhorse, The Iowa Review, and Best Small Fictions 2020, among many others, she has been a waitress, tax preparer, bartender, museum interpreter, cleaning woman, and college professor.
Her debut book, Mannequin and Wife (LSU Press) was a 2020 Shirley Jackson Award Nominee and won two 2020 Foreword INDIES among other prizes. Released October 5, 2021, Fawkes’ second book, Tales the Devil Told Me, won the 2020 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction. Its twelve stories examine the possible lives of classic literary villains.
About receiving the Porter Prize, Fawkes shares, “Though I grew up in Arkansas, I’d been away for many years before I learned of the state’s rich literary heritage. I deeply admire the work of those who’ve won this prize before me—Kevin Brockmeier, Jo McDougall, ‘Buddy’ Nordan, David Jauss, and Padma Viswanathan, to name a few – and it is a true honor to join their ranks.”
Fawkes’ books are available through her website at jenfawkes.com and through local and national booksellers.
Hot Springs native, Erin Wood is a writer, editor, and publisher in Little Rock. She owns and runs Et Alia Press (etaliapress.com). Wood is author of Women Make Arkansas: Conversations With 50 Creatives (April 2019) and editor of and a contributor to Scars: An Anthology (2015).
