Spokane Author Shann Ray Wins Prestigious Writing Award

We would like to offer congratulations to Spokane resident Shann Ray, winner of the Katharine Bakeless Nason Prize for Fiction, a prestigious award sponsored by The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference of Middlebury College. His winning manuscript, American Masculine: Montana Stories, will be published by the independent publisher, Graywolf Press, in 2011.

Shann Ray is the nom de plume of Dr. Shann Ferch, a professor currently employed by Gonzaga University, where he teaches classes on leadership and forgiveness. His short stories have appeared in numerous literary journals such as Northwest Review, StoryQuarterly, McSweeney's and The South Dakota Review. He also is an award-winning poet, a Fulbright scholar, a former collegiate basketball player and a father of three daughters.

Get Lit! Programs recently contacted Shann Ray over email in regards to this blog posting. He generously and eloquently offered the following quote when asked about Spokane and the Northwests' influence on his poetry and prose:

"Spokane's lit scene is the place where I was given the gift of seeing the world with new eyes. The great psychiatrist, and holocaust survivor, Victor Frankl once said: 'what is to give light must endure burning.' Frankl also said the most true expression of our humanity is to give ourselves in the ultimate unselfish act of loving another human being. I agree. Here in Spokane, I feel such gratitude for the deep investment other literary artists have made in me. Poet Jonathan Johnson completely transformed my vision of life with others, beauty, and the crucible involved in prose that is both elegant and filled with torque. Poet Chris Howell's Light's Ladder shattered me, and then made me whole. Jess Walter's discernment regarding plot and the undercurrents that move society, and especially his kindness, have been invaluable. Sherman Alexie's poetry collection, The Summer of Black Widows, his collection of stories, War Dances, and his vitality and generosity as a person have helped keep my hope alive as a writer.

"The Northwest, a span of wildness and fire I think of as running from Washington to British Columbia and from Alberta to my home state of Montana is another form of crucible. Spending time with my dad in the high country, and letting the landscape absorb me has given me an abiding respect for the ravishing mystery that is the created world.

"Awe, violence, loneliness, emptiness, forgiveness, intimacy, fullness and grace are aspects of our relationship to landscape that help form the interior of my poems and stories and the people who inhabit them. Both landscape and people leave me with a breathtaking sense of the many subtle and enduring ways perfect love casts out fear."

For more about Shann Ray and his writing, visit his website