Works by MSU English faculty featured in national anthologies
Contact: Sasha Steinberg
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擶orks by two Mississippi State English faculty members are being featured in two of the nation鈥檚 most prestigious anthologies.
鈥淭he Upside-Down World,鈥 a 2013 short story by Becky Hagenston, is among 20 included in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015.
鈥淩elevant Details,鈥 a poem by Catherine Pierce, was chosen for The Best American Poetry 2015.
Both are associate professors at the university.
In addition to teaching creative writing and fiction courses, Hagenston serves as faculty editor and adviser to the semi-annual campus literary journal, Jabberwock Review ().
Her previous recognitions include a 1996 O. Henry Award, as well as special mentions in Pushcart anthologies and Best American Short Stories. A story titled 鈥淢idnight, Licorice, Shadow鈥 also was included as a Distinguished Mystery Story in the 2008 Best American Mysteries list.
Hagenston, whose works have appeared in numerous journals, is the author of three award-winning short-story collections. They include Permafrost Book Prize in Fiction winner 鈥淪cavengers鈥 (University of Alaska Press, 2016); Spokane Prize for Short Fiction winner 鈥淪trange Weather鈥 (Press 53, 2010); and Mary McCarthy Prize winner 鈥淎 Gram of Mars鈥 (Sarabande Books, 1998).
A Maryland native, she is an Elizabethtown College graduate who holds master鈥檚 degrees from the University of Arizona and New Mexico State University. For more, see .
Pierce co-directs the university鈥檚 creative writing program and teaches creative writing and American literature courses. Among others, she has authored two award-winning books of poems, 鈥淔amous Last Words鈥 and 鈥淭he Girls of Peculiar鈥 (Saturnalia, 2008 and 2012, respectively). The former received the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize in 2007; the latter, Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Poetry in 2013.
Additionally, Pierce was honored in 2013 with the MSU College of Arts and Sciences鈥 Faculty Teaching Award in the Humanities.
Originally from Delaware, she is a Susquehanna University graduate with a master鈥檚 degree from Ohio State University and doctorate from the University of Missouri. For more, see .
Editions of the O. Henry collection are available for purchase at ; the poetry collection, at .
For more about MSU鈥檚 English department and its creative writing program, visit .
MSU is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .