The First Series Award for Short Fiction is open to any writer who has never published a book of creative nonfiction. Mid-List Press was founded in 1989 by a group of writers and editors who believed strongly that there was a need for an independent book publisher dedicated to the survival of the "midlist" -- those quality titles of general interest that are rarely bestsellers, but, in the words of noted media critic Ben H. Bagdikian, "nonetheless account for most lasting works in both fiction and nonfiction." Mid-List publishes books of high literary merit and fresh artistic vision by new and emerging writers.
Ferriss, who received tenure at Hamilton earlier this year, joined the faculty in 1995 as assistant professor of English and Creative Writing. Prior to that she taught at Hollis College and Tufts University.
Ferriss received the New Millennium award for fiction in 1999, a National Book Award nomination for The Misconceiver, a Redbook Fiction Award, Best American Short Stories distinguished story, and Southern Writers Association Award.
She earned a Ph.D. and master's degree in English and American literature from Tufts University, a master's from San Francisco State University and a bachelor's degree from Pomona College.
Ferriss completed a Fulbright Lectureship at Universite Libre de Brucxelles and Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, in 1999, where she taught American Literature: Wilderness as Metaphor, to undergraduate and graduate students in Anglophone literatures. At Hamilton she has directed the Visiting Writers series, Intercollegiate Reading Series and Creative Writing Senior Program.
Ferriss has written several novels, The Misconceiver (1997); Against Gravity (1996); The Gated River, which was a Critics Choice paperback in 1997; and Philip's Girl (1985). She has also written numerous stories that have appeared in such publications as the Missouri Review, American Literacy Review, Carolina Quarterly and The Southern Anthology. She has delivered many public lectures and fiction readings, and written essays and literary reviews for The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Washington Post BookWorld and Boston Magazine.
