Southampton English lecturer announced winner of the Ploughshares Zacharis Award

Carole Burns, Head of Creative Writing at the University of Southampton, has won the 2015 John C. Zacharis First Book Award from the prestigious U.S. magazine Ploughshares for The Missing Woman and Other Stories (Parthian Books, 2015), her debut short story collection.

Carole Burns, Head of Creative Writing at the University of Southampton, has won the 2015 John C. Zacharis First Book Award from the prestigious U.S. magazine Ploughshares for The Missing Woman and Other Stories (Parthian Books, 2015), her debut short story collection.

As well as undertaking her role in the English department at Southampton, Carole is also writer and reviewer for The Washington Post and author of the globally acclaimed how-to writing manual, Off the Page: Writers Talk About Beginnings, Endings, and Everything in Between (Norton, 2008).

In announcing the prize, Ladette Randolphe, editor-in-chief at Ploughshares, said: “Carole Burns’ stories are beautifully written accounts of seemingly small moments that are in fact immeasurably important turning points in a character’s life. Taken together, the stories in this collection are delicately-faceted observations of those precise moments upon which a life hinges.”

Carole added, “I’m thrilled and grateful to be given this award by Ploughshares. It gives me a little boost as I continue working on my next book of fiction.”

Ploughshares The $1,500 Award, which is named after a former president of Emerson College, honours the best debut book by a Ploughshares writer and alternates annually between poetry and fiction and is judged by the Ploughshares staff editors.