INTRODUCTION
Fall 2021 Office Hours (all virtual): Mondays and Tuesdays 1:30-3:00 p.m.; Wednesdays 1:30-2:30 p.m.
Bess Winter's fiction appears in American Short Fiction, Alaska Quarterly Review, Ecotone, W.W. Norton’s Flash Fiction International, and elsewhere, and has been awarded a Pushcart Prize and the American Short[er] Fiction Prize, as well as named to the Wigleaf Top 50 of 2012 and 2017. Her work is concerned with the timelessness of objects, animals, history, death and mourning, and the miniature--often in combination. Her debut fiction collection, Machines of Another Era, will be published by Gold Wake Press in 2021.
Bess has taught cross-genre courses in creative writing, as well as intermediate and advanced fiction. At StoryStudio Chicago she led topic-specific courses such as "Writing the Object" and "The Last Ten Percent" (revision). At EIU, she teaches introductory through graduate-level creative writing and fiction workshops. She's also Editor-in-Chief of the English Department's international literary magazine, Bluestem. She particularly enjoys organizing student readings and open mics, and encouraging her students to write in, and engage with, cross-disciplinary spaces on campus.
My EIU Story
Education & Training
PhD, University of Cincinnati
MFA, Bowling Green State University
B.A. Mount Allison University
Conference Presentations
Community
Publications
2019 "A General Confusion Overtook the Whole Vicinity," Gettysburg Review
2017 “Talking Dolls,” Michigan Quarterly Review
2017 “A Beautiful Song, Very Melancholy and Very Old,” Ecotone
2015 “Helena, Montana,” Alaska Quarterly Review
2015 “You Play With Dolls,” (essay) Black Warrior Review
2013 “Bad,” Indiana Review
2013 "Signs," Pushcart Prize XXXVII: Best of the Small Presses (2013 Edition)
2011 “Signs,” American Short Fiction
Funding & Grants
2019 Redden Undergraduate Enrichment Grant, Eastern Illinois University College of Arts and Sciences
2018 Travel grant, Eastern Illinois University College of Arts and Sciences
2015 Graduate Enrichment Award, Taft Foundation, University of Cincinnati
2015 Graduate Student Governance Association Research Fellowship, University of Cincinnati
2015 Reading Year Fellowship, University of Cincinnati Department of English
2015 Tennessee Williams Scholar, Sewanee Writers’ Conference
2012 Writing Residency, Corporation of Yaddo
Frequently Taught Courses
Introduction to Creative Writing, Intermediate Fiction, Advanced Fiction, Advanced Dramatic Writing, Graduate Writing Workshop, Creative Writing Professionalization
Research & Creative Interests
Professional Affiliations
Association of Writers and Writing Programs
Midwest Popular Culture Association
The Authors' Guild