Fellowships and Grants

Elizabeth George Foundation Grant, 2025.

50th Anniversary Fellow, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, 2024

Rona Jaffe Foundation Scholarship in Fiction, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, 2022

Mary Gibbs and Jesse H. Jones Fellowship, Inprint Houston, 2022

LitUp Fellowship, Reese’s Book Club, 2022

Awards

Narrative Story Contest, 2023

John Weston Award for Fiction, judged by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, 2021

“I was moved by the tender portrayal of the mother/daughter relationship; it was poignant and recognizable, yet not at all sentimental. I also appreciated the space and attention that the story gives to the narrator’s work—the geographic specificity of it, the physical and emotional costs, the way it reveals the lie of a private liberal arts education.”  

The Florida Review Editors’ Award in Nonfiction, 2021

John Weston Award for Fiction, judged by Andrea Lawlor, 2020

“Funny, sharp, gorgeously written, and so rich; I love all the little details of this story, and most of all, of course, Claudia's transformations.”  

The Pinch’s Nonfiction Literary Award, judged by Elissa Washuta, 2019

“This essay [Clay Girl Becomes Clay Woman] contains shifts, rhythms, and layers that bring to the page the unpredictable movements of the mind that recovers from trauma. Its focal points sharpen and then, just as quickly, dissolve into breakage. There is so much power in every surprising stop and especially in the loving heat of the arrival. ”

Passages North Ray Ventre Nonfiction Prize, Honorable Mention, 2019

AWP Intro Journal Award for Fiction, judged by Robert James Russell, 2019

John Weston Award for Fiction, judged by Venita Blackburn, 2018

“Galilee, if you Squint” has an awareness of unique cultural significance and presents feminine identity as an imposition through a character that lifts out of the ink to shake the boundaries of her own world, making it truly outstanding.”