Eckerd College's Jon Chopan wins top writing prize. Sign up for his class now!

Word comes that Eckerd College creative writing assistant professor Jon Chopan has just won the Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction. Eckerd College folks are such clever people. (We've discussed before that canny fellow Lee Irby and his riveting novel Unreliable.) Now comes this prestigious award to someone who teaches writing at the college. Eckerd students: if you want to learn to write, seems like signing up for Jon Chopan course would be a no-brainer.

The prize's namesake, Grace Paley, was a social activist and celebrated short story writer best known for what the New York Times called "her pitch-perfect dialogue" and her "tragicomic style" as she explored "the struggles of ordinary women muddling through everyday lives."

Jon Chopan was humbled at being selected for the award. “Grace Paley was not only a brilliant writer, she was a passionate activist who fought for women, against war and against nuclear proliferation," he said.  "Her writing is voice driven, sharp edged and full of characters that feel familiar to me. I don’t know that I could think of a writer whose work and life I would more prefer to emulate.”

Crisis Hotline, Veterans Press 1,  Jon's collection of a dozen short stories about Iraq war vets trying to cope with life, won the prize. In the video at the top, Jon reads from a short story published in the Epiphany Literary Journal about an Iraq war vet. Very moving. Jon's part starts at 3:10.

Congratulations, Jon Chopan!