Liza Wieland is an American novelist, short story writer and poet. Wieland has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

The 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...

, the Christopher Isherwood

Christopher Isherwood

Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an English-American novelist.-Early life and work:Born at Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, Cheshire in North West England, Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, was stationed...

 Foundation, and the North Carolina Arts Council, and her work has been awarded two Pushcart Prize

Pushcart Prize

The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....

s. Her novel A Watch of Nightingales won the 2008 Michigan Literary Fiction Award. Wieland earned her B.A. in English from Harvard and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. She graduated high school in 1978 from The Lovett School

The Lovett School

The Lovett School is a coeducational, kindergarten through twelfth grade independent school located in north Atlanta, Georgia.-History:In September 1926, Mrs. Eva Edwards Lovett, an innovative educator who emphasized the development of the whole child, officially began The Lovett School with 20...

 in Atlanta. She has taught at Colorado College

Colorado College

The Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell...

 and California State University-Fresno, and has been an Assistant Professor of English at East Carolina University

East Carolina University

East Carolina University is a public, coeducational, engaged doctoral/research university located in Greenville, North Carolina, United States. Named East Carolina University by statute and commonly known as ECU or East Carolina, the university is the largest institution of higher learning in...

since 2007.

Works

Novels

• A Watch of Nightingales. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 2009. ISBN 978-0472116720. The book gives an in-depth view of relationship dynamics as they change over time, especially emphasizing how they are culturally influenced. Wieland uses the Sikh culture to develop certain characters and weave an intricate plot. Each character, who is able to triumph over calamitous circumstances and find beauty through their process of healing, symbolizes a nightingale--because nightingales only sing at night, after sunset and at the end of the day.
• Bombshell. Dallas: SMU P, 2001. ISBN 978-0870744624
• The Names of the Lost. Dallas: SMU P, 1992. ISBN 978-0870743375

Stories

• You Can Sleep While I Drive. Dallas: SMU P, 1999. ISBN 978-0870744419
• Discovering America. New York: Random House, 1994. ISBN 978-0679424598

Poetry

• Near Alcatraz. Cincinnati: Cherry Grove, 2005. ISBN 978-1932339741