Janna McMahan
Janna McMahan is an American author who wrote her first novel when she was in her early thirties. She has published three novels, a novella, and several short stories.
Biography
McMahan was raised in rural Campbellsville, Kentucky. An early reader, she volunteered at her local library when she was eleven, fueling a lifelong desire to write. She earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky and an M.A. from the University of South Carolina, both in Mass Communications. Although she spent many years working in public relations, much of it in the fields of art and entertainment, she frequently wrote freelance articles about visual and literary art. She has also served as a ghost writer for a number of business clients.
Awards and recognition
In 1998, McMahan won the South Carolina Fiction Project[1] a literary competition sponsored by the Post and Courier[2] and the South Carolina Arts Commission,[3] for her short story "The Snag". Her short story "Seed Money" won the 2002 Piccolo Spoleto Fiction Open [4] and "Pluff Mud" won the 2004 Colossal Short Story Contest,[5] sponsored by the Columbia (South Carolina) Free Times.[6] Surface tension, an unpublished short story collection, was a finalist for the 2010 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction [7] and won honorable mention in the 2011 competition for the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction.[8] Surface Tension was also the winner of the Imaginative Writing Award (Betty Gabehart Fiction Prize) from the Kentucky Women Writers Conference in March 2005. McMahan was recently awarded the distinction of Literary Artist of the Year (2013) by Jasper Magazine, an arts publication in South Carolina.
McMahan's novella Decorations was included in the collection Snow Angels which was a Book of the Month Club selection and appeared in the New York Times, USA Today. and Publisher's Weekly bestseller lists.[8] Her novel Calling Home was selected as "Need to Read" by Target Corporation,[9] and The Ocean Inside was nominated for book of the year by the Southern Independent Booksellers Association [10] Sojourner Magazine reviewer, Bobbi Buchanan, praised McMahan's new novel Anonymity: "Intriguing and believable characters are part of what makes Janna McMahan's new novel Anonymity a memorable read".[11] The novel was nominated for the Kentucky Literary Award sponsored by Western Kentucky University and the Southern Kentucky Book Festival.
Personal life
McMahan currently lives in South Carolina.[12]
Bibliography
- Novels
- Undertow 2001
- Calling Home 2008
- The Ocean Inside 2009
- Anonymity 2012
- Novellas
- "Snow Angels" 2009
- Short stories
- "The Curator" 2014
- "Candy Cigarettes" 2008
- "What's Left Standing" 2006
- "Intruder" 2006
- "Rolling Boil" 2006
- "Seeing Things" 2005
- "Pluff Mud" 2004
- "Dry Land Fish" 2002
- "Up the Creek" 2000
- "The Snag" 1998
- Creative non-fiction
- "The Long Lake View" scheduled for 2015
- "Pat Conroy: Or How I stalked My Prince of Tides" 2013
- "A Name You Can Yell" 2012
- "Batteries Not Included" 2010
- "The Worst Bad Neighbor" 2009
- "Book Tour Boot Camp" 2008
- "A Strong Sense of Place," 2008
- "Happy Camper" 2007
- "Sugar Babies" 2003
- "Confessions of a Bag Lady" 2002
References
- ↑ "The South Carolina Arts Commission | Fiction Project". Southcarolinaarts.com. 2012-10-01. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
- ↑ "Charleston SC, News, Sports, Entertainment". The Post and Courier. 2013-05-16. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
- ↑ "South Carolina Fiction Project". South Carolina Arts Commission. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
- ↑ The State June 2, 2002 p.E14
- ↑ Free-Times, Columbia, SC July 2004
- ↑ "Columbia SC News, Events, Restaurants and Classifieds". Free-times.com. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
- ↑ "News from the University of Georgia Press: Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award winners announced". Ugapress.blogspot.com. 2010-08-05. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
- 1 2 "Contests & Submissions « Sarabande Books". Web.archive.org. 2012-02-08. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
- ↑ "Authors |". SC Book Festival. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
- ↑ "2010 SIBA Book Award Long List Announced". Sibaweb.com. 2012-10-26. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
- ↑ Buchanan, Bobbi. "Children of the Street - Bobbi Buchanan | Sojourners Magazine - July 2013". Sojo.net. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
- ↑ "Janna McMahan's 'the ocean inside'". Charleston Treasures. October 5, 2011. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
External links
- 2013 interview of McMahan with Skirt Magazine
- 2013 interview of McMahan with Authors Round the South
- 2011 McMahan article from WKU Libraries blog
- 2008 interview of McMahan with Southern Authors blog