Deborah Prum

Fiction:  Twenty-five of my short stories have appeared in journals and anthologies, including twice in the Virginia Quarterly Review. Most recently, “Our Lady of Perpetual Mold” was placed in Across the Margin and “JFK, Daddy and Me” in The Skyline Anthology 2015 and “The Arithmetic of Love” in Streetlight Magazine. “JFK, Daddy and Me” was selected for the Virginia Centennial Anthology 1918-2018 (Best of Virginia Writers Club).

Awards: My writing has won ten awards including first place in a North Carolina Writer’s Network contest, first place in a regional short story contest (The Hook, central Virginia), second place awards for each of three stories, and a bronze award from a civic group that was honoring the “three most popular” Charlottesville writers. The other recipients were John Grisham (gold) and Rita Mae Brown (silver).  My story, “Our Lady of Perpetual Mold” made Across the Margin’s Best Fiction list.

Essays and Articles: My humorous radio essays routinely air on NPR member stations.  My print essays and articles have appeared in many outlets including the Washington Post, Southern Living and Ladies’ Home Journal. My articles on the craft of writing have been published in The Writer, The Writer’s Handbook, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Bulletin.

Presentations: I’ve given workshops at WriterHouse, Tupelo Press Teen Writing Center and Navigating Your Writing Life (a conference of the Virginia Writers Club). I was a guest lecturer for graduate students at James Madison University and at Jane Friedman’s writing class at the University of Virginia. Recently, at the Virginia Festival of the Book, I appeared on three panels (reading from my work in an anthology, conducting a speed critique and speaking on digital publishing).

Platform: I have well over 1,200 friends on Facebook. I am active on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. I maintain a website and blog where I routinely (but not excessively) post links to my published stories and articles, links to my NPR essays, and post book and movie reviews.  I’ve developed a solid audience among those who read my essays and articles in newspapers and magazines and those who listen to my essays on NPR.

Passion: I thoroughly enjoy all aspects of writing: bringing characters to life, creating a story, revising it, hearing responses from readers, sharing what I know about writing with others and learning from my colleagues and mentors. I perform improv with Big Blue Door in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Education: University of Connecticut, Dartmouth College, Anderson Street Workshop (with Alice Mattison), Hedgebrook (Master Class with Jane Hamilton), Phi Beta Kappa.