Beattie wins $30,000 Rea Award for the Short Story

Staff Report

Ann Beattie, U.Va.’s Edgar Allan Poe Professor of English and Creative Writing, has won a $30,000 Rea Award for the Short Story.

The award is given annually to a writer making a “significant contribution to the discipline of the short story as an art form,” according to a statement issued by Rea judges. The statement also noted that “Beattie is a writer for and of her time… Her prose has become known for its vivid particularity, the details of the way we live.” The Washington Post concurs, having previously called her “one of the era’s most vital masters of the short form.”

Beattie’s published works include eight collections of short stories, most recently, “Follies:

New Stories.” Her work also has been included in John Updike’s Best American Short Stories of the Century.

Michael M. Rea, a passionate reader and collector of short stories, established the Rea award in 1986. Previous winners include Joyce Carol Oates and Alice Munro.