Born: 03/21/1949   Los Angeles , CA
Parents: William S. Penn, mother deceased
Spouse: Jennifer S. Penn
Children: Rachel Antonia, William Anthony
Address(es):
Permanent :
963 Lantern Hill Dr.
East Lansing , MI 48823
USA
Contact Information:
Phone : 517-337-0694
Email : [email protected]
Website : http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/william-penn/

Image	Title	Genre	Audience	Publisher	Date
	Feathering Custer - Narrative essays		Adult	University of Nebraska Press	2001
	This Is the World - All but one story published in literary magazines or juried journals. Two stories received prizes, another a nomination for a Best American anthology, and the whole collection was a finalist in the Iowa School of Letters Awards.		Adult	Michigan State University Press	2000
	Killing Time with Strangers - Winner, American Book Award for Literary Merit, June 2001 by American Book Association, Chicago, IL.	Fiction		University of Arizona Press	2000
	As We Are Now: Mixblood Essays on Race and Identity, ed. - Edited and introduced with a contributing essay	Non Fiction	Adult	Berkeley : University of California Press	1998
	The Telling of the World: Native American Stories and Art, selected and edited	Non Fiction , Folklore	Adult	New York : Stewart, Tabori & Chang	1996
	All My Sins Are Relatives - Non-fictional narrative essays on growing up an urban mixblood and Native American Literature. Winner of the 1994 North American Indian Prose Award, the University of Nebraska Press, 1995. Winner of the Critics' Choice Award for the Most Acclaimed Books of 1995-96.	Non Fiction	Adult	Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press	1995
	The Absence of Angels	Fiction	Adult	Sag Harbor, N.Y. : Permanent Press	1994
	Other writings: - Stories in The Vanderbilt Review, The Northern Review, Passages, Southern Humanities Review, Port Townsend Journal and others. Articles, belles lettres, essays in Spell/binder, Southern Humanities Rreview and others. Poems in California Quarterly, Portland Review and others. Works included in Wayzgoose Anthology of New Canadian-American Writing.	Non Fiction , Poetry	Adult

What is the aim or goal of your writing: "Luck. Hard work. Continuous work and instinct for survival. Humor (lots of humor). I work every day. And I keep strict priorities: my work and family; everything else." "I write to amuse and entertain, but I write from a center I take seriously, a center given to me by my grandfather, encouraged by my sisters, and nurtured by my wife and by my daughter and son with whom I tell stories. Indeed, All My Sins Are Relatives is dedicated 'For Grandfather, who knows / And Rachel and Willy, so they may.' Thus, I would say that much of my work is so they—the children, not just my own—may know my attempt to bridge the gap between the urban mixblood and Euramerican worlds to which I belong."

May inquiries be sent to you about doing workshops, readings: Yes

Donated books to the Authors & Illustrators database project: No

Skills:
Author

Name	Date
Wordcraft Circle Writer of the Year in Creative Prose: Fiction for Feathering Custer.	2002
American Book Award for Literary Merit and the Distinguished Faculty Award from Michigan State University - For Killing Time with Strangers	2001
The Telling of the World: Native American Stories and Art was named to the list of Best University Press Books	2000
Native American Editor of the Year by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers	1998
Critic's Choice Award for the Most Acclaimed Books of 1995-96. - For All My Sins are Relatives	1996
North American Indian Prose Award from the University of Nebraska Press - For his book All My Sins Are Relatives	1994
Michigan Authors, 3rd ed.	1993
Resident Writer, Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Alberta, Canada,	1991
Nominated for Pushcart Prize	1991
Michigan Council for the Arts Grant	1990
New York Foundation for the Arts Prize	1988
All University Research Initiation Grant, Michigan State University	1988
Finalist, P.E.N. Nelson Algren Awards	1987
Supporting Grant, Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation	1985
Who's Who Directory of Writers, Editors and Publishers	1984
Finalist, Iowa School of Letters Award for Short Fiction	1984
Directory of American Fiction Writers	1983
Montalvo Center for the Arts Fellowship	1983
Yaddo Fellowship - To work on his novel, The absence of Angels	1983
Honorable Mention, James B. Phelan Awards	1982
Michael Alssid Prize	1979
University Research Fellowship	1979
Departmental Citation for Distinguished Work	1979
Departmental Citation for the Outstanding Undergraduate in English	1970
Stephan Crane Prize in Fiction - Award received for following years: 1977, 1979
Directory of Native American Writers

MeLCat Links:
http://elibrary.mel.org/search~S15?/aPenn%2C+W.+S.%2C+1949-/apenn+w+s+1949/-3%2C-1%2C0%2CB/exact&FF=apenn+w+s+1949&1%2C-1%2C/indexsort=r

Last Modified On: 3/15/2025 12:00:00 AM