Faculty Spotlight

Good Ink: Trinity English Professor Wins Flannery O’ Connor in Short Fiction Award 
By Russell Guerrero

This academic year has been an unforgettable one for Andrew Porter, an assistant professor of English who teaches creative writing at Trinity. The University of Georgia Press recently honored him with the 2007 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. The award included a cash prize and a contract from the University of Georgia Press to publish a collection of his short stories, to be titled The Theory of Light and Matter, in the fall.

In addition, one of his stories, “Departure,” was published in The Pushcart Prize XXXII: Best of the Small Presses 2008, one of the most prestigious annual anthologies of short fiction.  Even Stephen King gave some love to Andrew by naming his short story “Azúl” as one of 100 Distinguished Stories of 2007 in the latest edition of Best American Short Stories.

Quite a literary hat trick. 

“To have a story selected for The Pushcart Prize is a tremendous honor,” said Andrew. “And being recognized by the Best American Short Story collection is probably the dream of every short story writer.”

A native of Lancaster, Pa., he received a bachelor’s degree in English with a creative writing concentration from Vassar College. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing/fiction from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Andrew came to Trinity in 2004 to teach creative writing and to organize a new creative writing program for the University. He said he was looking for a position at a small liberal arts university when he learned about Trinity. “I had been teaching the previous three or four years at large universities. Once I came to Trinity I immediately fell in love with it and liked everyone I met in the English department. I was very excited to be offered the job.”

 While this year has been a banner one, the future is no less exciting. Andrew is currently working on a novel and has another in development. And the creative writing minor he designed, which includes fiction writing, magazine writing, poetry, and script writing, will be offered to students in the fall.