Congratulations to Siamak Vossoughi (“Worth it to be Wrong,” Issue 3) whose short story collection
Better Than War has won the Flannery O’Connor Award.
It will be published by the University of Georgia Press in Fall 2015.
Flannery O’Connor series editor Nancy Zafris on Better Than War:
“The short shorts that comprise Better Than War examine the fitful ways of assimilation and the particular loneliness of alienation, especially as they apply to Iranian immigrants. Although told from the point of view of several characters, the first-person tales dominate. What emerges is a bildungsroman mosaic constructed in pieces of language that are less idiomatic than philosophical. The puzzle-piece ruminations evoke reminders of Calvino and Kundera, American Iranian style. This is a young writer venturing into territory that will define his aesthetic style and ambitions.”