CCA Writing and Literature chair and assistant professor Aimee Phan, also an assistant professor in the college’s MFA Program in Writing, has been awarded a $25,000 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) 2010 Literature Fellowship in Creative Writing.

The NEA Literature Fellowship in Creative Writing has two categories: prose (fiction and creative nonfiction) and poetry—and Phan won in the prose category. The winners were announced in early December. Prose grants are issued to published creative writers and are intended to facilitate future travel and research, as well as to promote individual careers.

Phan's first book, We Should Never Meet (St. Martin's Press 2004), was listed among the 2005 Kiriyama Prize Notable Books in fiction. Media praise for the book included the Los Angeles Times: "Phan charts [these] journeys with acuity, sensitivity, and a wisdom that is remarkable for such a young writer" and Publisher's Weekly: "A graceful, spare debut . . . a wrenching, poignant collection laced with pity and horror."

Born and raised in Orange County, California, Phan's fiction has appeared in Colorado Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Chelsea, Prairie Schooner and Meridian. Her nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, and the Oregonian.

Phan also has to her credit a Maytag Fellowship from the Iowa Writers' Workshop (where she earned her MFA) and a MacDowell Colony Residency.

Related
Visit Aimee Phan's website.
Read her blog: fussyriceseeds.vox.com.