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Background

Jaimee Wriston Colbert is the author of seven books of fiction: How Not to Drown, Vanishing Acts, Wild Things, Shark Girls, Dream Lives of Butterflies, Climbing the God Tree, and Sex, Salvation, and the Automobile. Her books won the 2021 and 2018 International Book Awards, the 2021 NYC Big Book Award in General Fiction, the CNY 2017 Fiction Award, the Willa Cather Fiction Prize, the Zephyr Prize, the IPPY Gold Medal, Ian MacMillan Fiction Award, and more. 

Her stories and essays have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Prairie Schooner, New Letters, Fiction Writers Review, and many other venues. She is a recipient of the 2019 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities at °®¶¹´«Ã½, where she is SUNY Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing.

Selected Publications

• How Not to Drown, 2021. Alcove/Crooked Lane Books. Novel.
• Vanishing Acts, 2018. Fomite Press. Novel.
• Wild Things, 2016. BkMk Press, Univ. of Missouri, KC. Linked stories.
• Shark Girls, 2009. Livingston Press, Univ. of West Alabama. Novel.
• Dream Lives of Butterflies, 2007. BkMk Press. Linked Stories.

Education

• MA, Brown University
• BA, University of Washington

Research Interests

• 18-19th century Highland Clearances
• Environmental science
• Nature writing
• Climate change

Teaching Interests

• Fiction Writing: Novels and Stories.
• Contemporary Literature, International.
• ENG 641 Fiction Workshop, CW 450 Advanced Fiction Workshop, CW 350 Intermediate Fiction Workshop, CW 380, various

Awards

• 2021: How Not to Drown won the 2021 International Book Award in Fiction: General.
• 2021: How Not to Drown won the 2021 New York City (NYC) Book Award in Fiction: General.
• 2019: Awarded the 2018-2019 Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities
• 2018: Wild Things won the International Book Award in Fiction-Short Stories; Vanishing Acts was a finalist for the American Fiction Prize, family saga, and the 2018 Indie Excellence Award in Literary Fiction. Vanishing Acts selected as Featured Book on eco-fiction.com: Authors who Tackle Climate Change.
• 2017: Wild Things won the CNY 2017 Book Award in Fiction; Finalist for the American Book Fest Best Books of 2017; longlisted for 2017 Chautauqua Prize.
• 2016: "Things Blow Up" Finalist for the Gertrude Stein Award in Fiction.
• 2015: "Things Blow Up" Finalist for the Sequestrum Editor's Reprint Award; "Wild Things" (story) Featured Story in Solstice Summer Awards Issue.
• 2014: "The Hoodie's Tale" Finalist for Glimmer Train's Very Short Fiction Award; "Suicide Birds" Finalist/Honorable Mention for the Gabehart Fiction Prize.
• 2013: Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service, °®¶¹´«Ã½.
• 2012: "Things Blow Up" won the Ian MacMillan Fiction Prize.
• 2011: "We Are All In Pieces," Special Mention in the 2011 Pushcart Prize Anthology; Finalist for the Julia Peterkin Fiction Prize.
• 2010: Shark Girls Finalist for the USA Book News Best Books of 2010 Awards and the ForeWord Magzine's Book of the Year Awards, nominated for the ALA Notable Books of 2010.
• 2009: "We Are All In Pieces" won the Editor's Fiction Prize - Isotope, A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing; "The Man Who Jumped" won the Jane's Stories National Award for the Short Story.
• 2008: Dream Lives of Butterflies won the gold medal/first place in the 12th Annual Independent Publisher Book Awards - Short Stories Fiction.
• 2007: Dream Lives of Butterflies Finalist in the USA Book News Best Books Awards; ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards and listed in the Kansas City Star's "100 Best Books of the Year."
• 2002: Climbing The God Tree selected by the Maine Humanities Council to adapt into canon of Maine Literature Programs, along with Richard Russo's The Empire Falls and Annie Proux's Pulitizer Prize winning Shipping News.
• 1999: Awarded the Fiction Fellowship - Wesleyan Writers Conference; selected in national competition to serve as University of Missouri-St. Louis, "Distinguished Visiting Writer."
• 1997: Climbing The God Tree won the Willa Cather Fiction Prize, a national/international competition.
• 1996: Finalist, Katherine Anne Porter Fiction Prize.
• 1995: Won the Delogue Award for an "Outstanding Woman Fiction Writer" - Stonecoast Writers' Conference.
• 1994: Won the Zephyr Literary Book Prize, national competition, for Sex, Salvation, and the Automobile.

Research Profile