Since attending the National Book Foundation’s inaugural “5 Under 35” celebration in 2006, I’ve become a bit enamored of the program. It’s honored some writers I’d already found and loved, and introduced me to others whose work I am grateful to have come across. It’s a wonderful program, and I was very happy to have a chance to chat with 5 past recipients of the “5 Under 35” honor while I was at Gulf Coast. My thanks to Bret Anthony Johnston, Rattawut Lapcharoensap, Fiona Maazel, Dinaw Mengestu, and Josh Weil for taking the time to talk with me about life as an emerging writer. You can read the interview here.
Laurie Ann Cedilnik is a writer living in Houston by way of Queens. She has an MFA from The University of Houston, where she was an Inprint C. Glen Cambor Fellow and Editor of Gulf Coast. Her stories can be found in the Colorado Review, Epoch, West Branch, The Antioch Review, Pleiades, Cimarron Review, The Rumpus, Brevity, Hobart, and Fifth Wednesday, and her story collection Queens’ Finest was one of two runners-up for the Flannery O’Connor Prize. Laurie’s writing has received awards including a Tennessee Williams Scholarship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, a Bobet Fellowship, and Gwen Frostic Prizes in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Laurie is a graduate of Wellesley College and Hunter College High School, and has taught creative writing at Loyola University (New Orleans), Grand Valley State, and Western Michigan University, where she earned a PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing.
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