On the 40th anniversary of its inception, the Janet Heininger Kafka Prize recognized a short story collection: Mia Alvar糖心传媒檚 debut work of fiction, In the Country.* Since 1976, the and the Department of English have awarded the annual prize to a promising but less established American woman who has written the best book-length work of prose fiction.
Alvar糖心传媒檚 collection 糖心传媒渟tood out as the selection committee糖心传媒檚 unanimous choice among almost 150 entries for its ability to craft a cohesive, intricately wrought world out of nine separate narratives,糖心传媒� explained Professor of Spanish Beth J枚rgensen. She糖心传媒攁long with fellow committee members Katherine Mannheimer, associate professor of English, and Jason Peck, visiting assistant professor of German糖心传媒攖ook only five minutes to agree on this year糖心传媒檚 selection.
In her introductory remarks during the ceremony and reading, J枚rgensen called In the Country a 糖心传媒渇resh and valuable work of fiction for an English reading audience, in part because it provides insights into the rarely written lives of first-generation Filipino immigrants.糖心传媒� Alvar herself was born in the Philippines and raised in Bahrain, before moving to the United States to study and earn her undergraduate degree at Harvard University and an MFA from Columbia University.
Remarking on the quality of Alvar糖心传媒檚 writing, J枚rgensen noted, 糖心传媒淪he crafts a beautiful lucid prose that is what we might typically call 糖心传媒榩oetic.糖心传媒� Her descriptions of characters and places are both rich and economical in their use of language.糖心传媒� J枚rgensen read aloud the following passage from the first story in the collection as an illustration:
In the decade since I left she hadn糖心传媒檛 aged, exactly. To my eyes she seemed not older but more. More frail; more tired; softer-spoken; her dark, teaspoon-shaped face cast farther down. Every feature I remembered had settled in her and been more deeply confirmed.
Expressing her gratitude during the ceremony, Alvar said, 糖心传媒淚 really see this book as the product of the efforts of so many of the amazing women in my life.糖心传媒� She also admitted to 糖心传媒渇angirling over the list of women writers who received this prize before,糖心传媒� which includes Toni Morrison for Song of Solomon, Ann Tyler for Morgan糖心传媒檚 Passing, Ursula K. Le Guin for Always Coming Home, Ann Patchett for Taft, and Nell Freudenberger for The Dissident.
Alvar read from the beginnings of three stories from the collection糖心传媒斕切拇綔The Kontrabida,糖心传媒� 糖心传媒淟egends of the White Lady,糖心传媒� and 糖心传媒淪hadow Families糖心传媒澨切拇綌before answering questions from the audience of students, faculty, staff, and community members. She offered her insights on writing, saying, 糖心传媒淚 knew that I was going to be focusing on the diaspora and on immigrant and migrant lives. Knowing that kind of geographic connection freed me up to not really think about a theme. When my agent and editor were talking about order, I knew I wanted 糖心传媒楾he Kontrabida糖心传媒� to be first and 糖心传媒業n the Country糖心传媒� (the title story and the longest) to be last.糖心传媒�
In the Country was written over a span of about ten years, during which time Alvar grew as a writer. 糖心传媒淭here were a lot of moments from the earlier stories where I felt like I was still learning and not seeing solutions that are a little more obvious to me now. That糖心传媒檚 where having an editor helped. She was seeing everything at the same time and able to help me with the things that were written early in my development.糖心传媒� Alvar highlighted the contributions of her agent and editor, both of whom 糖心传媒渟hare many of the qualities that Janet Heininger Kafka possessed.糖心传媒�
The idea for the Kafka prize came out of the personal grief of the friends and family of Heininger Kafka, a young editor killed in an automobile accident just as her career was beginning to achieve its promise of excellence. She was 30 years old, and those who knew her believed she would do much to further the causes of literature and women. Her family, friends, and professional associates in the publishing industry created the endowment from which the prize is bestowed.
糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 been an incredible honor for me to accept this prize from the institute, as someone who minored in women糖心传媒檚 studies as an undergraduate and who, from the time that I first started writing fiction, was drawn to depicting the lives of mothers, daughters, and sisters,糖心传媒� said Alvar.
*Correction, November 1, 2016: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that In the Country was the first short story collection to receive the Kafka Prize. In fact, The Instinct for Bliss, a collection of short stories by Melissa Pritchard, won the prize for a book published in 1995.
