Knox Professor's Fiction Writing Wins Recognition

by Stephen Danilovich '14

"Tell Everyone I Said Hi," a collection of stories written by Knox College faculty member Chad Simpson, was selected as a 2011 finalist for both the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction from Sarabande Books and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction.

Simpson, a visiting assistant professor of English at Knox, has been recognized for several other publications.

The title story of his chapbook Phantoms, which tells nine stories in 20 pages, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2011. The chapbook also contained another story, "Estate Sales," that was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

His short story "The American Bulldog" will be included in the upcoming anthology New Stories from the Midwest 2011.

In addition, American Short Fiction chose one of Simpson's stories, "The Woodlands," as its July Web Exclusive. He was interviewed about "The Woodlands" at the American Short Fiction blog.

Some of Simpson's new work is scheduled to appear in New Stories from the Midwest 2011, and in literary journals such as Midwestern Gothic, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Barrelhouse, and Unswept.

A member of the Knox faculty since 2005, Simpson was awarded the Philip Green Wright-Lombard College Prize for Distinguished Teaching in 2010.

He specializes in contemporary American literature, graphic novels, and Dante's Inferno, as well as creative fiction and non-fiction writing. He earned a bachelor's degree from Monmouth College and an M.F.A. from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.