Janet Peery
Encyclopedia
Janet Peery (born July 18, 1948 Wichita, Kansas
) is an American short story writer and novelist.
with a B.A. in Speech Pathology and Audiology in 1975 and an M.F.A. in Fiction in 1992. She has three daughters and five grandchildren.
Sometimes considered a "writer's writer" for her dense prose and stories that pay close attention to craft, she has had works published in literary journals including Shenandoah, The Kenyon Review
, Quarterly West, Black Warrior Review, 64 Magazine, Southern Review, Image: A Journal of Religion and the Arts, Chattahoochee Review, Kansas Quarterly, New Virginia Review, Blackbird, American Short Fiction, and Southwest Review
,. She has won the Seaton Award from Kansas Quarterly, the Jeanne Charpiot Goodheart Prize from Washington and Lee University (twice), two Pushcart Prizes and inclusion in The Best of the Pushcart Prize, selection for Best American Short Stories 1993 (ed. Louise Erdrich), and five citations for 100 Distinguished Stories from Best American Short Stories. Her novel The River Beyond the World was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1996. Her fiction often explores differences in race, class, religion and gender, flight and renewal in the new American West, domesticity, loss, violence, mystery and aging.
She teaches at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where she is designated University Professor and was the recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia.
She has given readings at many American colleges and universities, has taught at Warren Wilson M.F.A. Program for Writers, Antioch University LA, Sweet Briar College, Glen Workshop at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, Sewanee Writers Conference and other conferences. She has served as Writer in Residence for the National Book Foundation's American Voices Project on the Rosebud Reservation in Mission, South Dakota and Rocky Boy's Reservation in Montana.
Peery is a kind, humorous woman who enjoys exploring the difference between class and compassion. She is a failed poet: "Every poem I tried to write was a story." Peery claims she is too fond of word play.
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
) is an American short story writer and novelist.
Life
Daughter of a teacher and a judge, the eldest of six children, Peery grew up in Kansas and Wisconsin. She held a series of odd jobs, waiting tables, working as a lifeguard and swimming instructor and as a hospital respiratory therapy technician. She attended Kansas State Teachers College in Emporia from 1966 to 1968 and graduated from Wichita State UniversityWichita State University
Wichita State University is a NCAA Division I public university in Wichita, Kansas with selective admissions. WSU is one of six state universities governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The current president is Dr. Donald Beggs....
with a B.A. in Speech Pathology and Audiology in 1975 and an M.F.A. in Fiction in 1992. She has three daughters and five grandchildren.
Sometimes considered a "writer's writer" for her dense prose and stories that pay close attention to craft, she has had works published in literary journals including Shenandoah, The Kenyon Review
The Kenyon Review
The Kenyon Review is a Literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, USA, home of Kenyon College. The Review was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959...
, Quarterly West, Black Warrior Review, 64 Magazine, Southern Review, Image: A Journal of Religion and the Arts, Chattahoochee Review, Kansas Quarterly, New Virginia Review, Blackbird, American Short Fiction, and Southwest Review
Southwest Review
The Southwest Review is a literary journal published quarterly, based on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, Texas. It is the third oldest literary quarterly in the United States of America . The current editor-in-chief is Willard Spiegelman.The journal was formerly known as the...
,. She has won the Seaton Award from Kansas Quarterly, the Jeanne Charpiot Goodheart Prize from Washington and Lee University (twice), two Pushcart Prizes and inclusion in The Best of the Pushcart Prize, selection for Best American Short Stories 1993 (ed. Louise Erdrich), and five citations for 100 Distinguished Stories from Best American Short Stories. Her novel The River Beyond the World was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1996. Her fiction often explores differences in race, class, religion and gender, flight and renewal in the new American West, domesticity, loss, violence, mystery and aging.
She teaches at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where she is designated University Professor and was the recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia.
She has given readings at many American colleges and universities, has taught at Warren Wilson M.F.A. Program for Writers, Antioch University LA, Sweet Briar College, Glen Workshop at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, Sewanee Writers Conference and other conferences. She has served as Writer in Residence for the National Book Foundation's American Voices Project on the Rosebud Reservation in Mission, South Dakota and Rocky Boy's Reservation in Montana.
Peery is a kind, humorous woman who enjoys exploring the difference between class and compassion. She is a failed poet: "Every poem I tried to write was a story." Peery claims she is too fond of word play.
Awards
- 1992 National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Fellowship. - 1993 Whiting Writers' AwardWhiting Writers' AwardThe Whiting Writers' Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation and has been presented since 1985. As of 2007, winners receive US $50,000.-External links:**...
- 1994 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- 1996 National Book Award Finalist
- 1998 Guggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
- 2008 Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction
- 2008 WILLA Award for Contemporary Fiction from Women Writing the West