Bowie State English Professor Receives Prestigious Literary Award

Rion Scott Honored with the PEN/Bingham Award for Debut Fiction

MEDIA CONTACT: Damita Chambers, dchambers@bowiestate.edu, 301-832-2628 mobile

(BOWIE, Md.) – A Bowie State University English professor received a prestigious award and a $25,000 prize for his collection of short stories at the 2017 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony this week.

Lecturer Rion Scott was honored with the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award for Debut Fiction for “Insurrections: Stories,” which tells the experiences of African Americans in the fictional town of Cross River, Maryland, founded in 1807 after the only successful slave revolt in the United States.

The award recognizes an author whose debut work displays literary brilliance and promise for a second work of fiction. PEN America, an advocate for literary and free expression, first announced 10 semifinalists for the award and narrowed the list to five before revealing Scott as the winner at the awards ceremony.

“As long as they keep distorting and keep flattening our humanity, I want to keep responding with complexity,” Scott said in his acceptance speech. “That's my insurrection, and I encourage you all to do the same.” 

Since “Insurrections” was published in July 2016, Scott has continued to receive a number of positive reviews from national media, including TheRoot.com.

In praising Scott’s work, the award judges, who represent the nation’s foremost fiction writers, said, “These are hard, humane stories, free of grandstanding yet full of grace, that loom in the mind long after reading. We were better off for having read ‘Insurrections.’”

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