Bennett Sims (author)

For the bishop, see Bennett Sims.
Bennett Sims
BornBaton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.
OccupationWriter, novelist
Alma materPomona College
Iowa Writers' Workshop

Bennett Sims is an American fiction writer with three book publications, the novel A Questionable Shape (2013) and the short story collections White Dialogues and Other Minds and Other Stories. He is an assistant professor at the University of Iowa.

Early life and education

Sims was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.[1][2] During high school, he spent three summers in the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts' boarding program, where he wrote fiction.[3] He graduated from Pomona College in 2008, where he was mentored by David Foster Wallace.[3] He later graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he was a Truman Capote Fellow,[4] and he served as a Provost's Postgraduate Visiting Writer at the University of Iowa from 2012-2013.[5]

Career

Sims's debut novel, A Questionable Shape, was published by Two Dollar Radio on May 1, 2013.[6] It won the 2014 Bard Fiction Prize, which included a $30,000 cash prize and a semester-long writer-in-residence appointment at Bard College.[7]

Reviews often referred to the book as a novel with zombies that is not a zombie novel,[8][9][10] set in Louisiana and referring opaquely to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.[11][12] It received generally positive reviews from media outlets including The Guardian,[9] Electric Literature,[13] Los Angeles Review of Books,[12] and Publishers Weekly.[14]

In 2017, Sims published his second book, a short story collection called White Dialogues, with Two Dollar Radio on September 12, 2017.[15] It received positive reviews from Publishers Weekly,[16] Kirkus Reviews,[17] and Bookforum.[18] After the publication of the book, Sims was a Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome in 2018-2019, where he worked on his third book, a novel.[19]

His stories have been published in The Iowa Review,[20] Story,[21] Conjunctions,[22] Ploughshares,[23] and the Pushcart Prize Anthology.[24]

Other Minds and Other Stories was named a finalist for The Story Prize.[25]

He currently teaches undergraduate fiction courses at the University of Iowa.[26]

References

  1. ^ "Bennett Sims". The Times. April 2, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  2. ^ Weesam (April 2, 2022). "Bennett Sims". Worlds Without End. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  3. ^ a b Loeb, Eryn (2013-05-01). "First: Bennett Sims's A Questionable Shape". Poets & Writers Magazine. 41 (3): 75–80.
  4. ^ "Bennett Sims". UK. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  5. ^ "Past Provost's Postgraduate Visiting Writers and Fellows | English | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences | The University of Iowa". english.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  6. ^ "A Questionable Shape". Two Dollar Radio. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  7. ^ Relations, Bard Public. "Annual Bard Fiction Prize Is Awarded To Bennett Sims | Bard College Public Relations". www.bard.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  8. ^ "Review: A Questionable Shape, by Bennett Sims". Electric Literature. 2013-06-03. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  9. ^ a b "A Questionable Shape by Bennett Sims review – Zombies in Louisiana". the Guardian. 2014-07-11. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  10. ^ Goldman, Nathan. "A Zombie Novel Without Zombies: An Interview with Bennett Sims | The American Reader". The American Reader. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  11. ^ Full Stop. "Bennett Sims". Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  12. ^ a b "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. 2013-07-28. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  13. ^ "A Questionable Shape". Electric Literature. 2013-05-01. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  14. ^ "A Questionable Shape by Bennett Sims". www.publishersweekly.com. 2013-05-01. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  15. ^ "White Dialogues". Two Dollar Radio. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  16. ^ "White Dialogues by Bennett Sims". Publishers Weekly. 2017-10-01. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  17. ^ WHITE DIALOGUES | Kirkus Reviews.
  18. ^ "Top Shelf". Bookforum. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  19. ^ Rome, American Academy in (20 February 2019). "Bennett Sims". American Academy in Rome. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  20. ^ SIMS, BENNETT (2014). "City of Wolfmen". The Iowa Review. 44 (3): 3–6. doi:10.17077/0021-065X.7506. ISSN 0021-065X. JSTOR 43999703.
  21. ^ Haas, Katy (15 December 2015). "Story - 2015". www.newpages.com. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  22. ^ "A Nightmare, by Bennett Sims". Conjunctions. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  23. ^ Sims, Bennett (2018). "Pecking Order". Ploughshares. 44 (1): 174–183. doi:10.1353/plo.2018.0034. S2CID 201780413. Project MUSE 692956.
  24. ^ "Sims; Bennett – Story". www.storymagazine.org. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  25. ^ "Here are this year's finalists for The Story Prize". LitHub. 9 January 2024. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  26. ^ "Bennett Sims | English | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences | The University of Iowa". english.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-02.