Clint McCown
{{Short description|American author, poet, journalist, editor, actor, and university professor}}
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{{Infobox scholar
| name = Clint McCown
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| birth_date = 1952
| birth_place = Fayetteville, Tennessee, U.S.
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| workplaces = Virginia Commonwealth University
Vermont College of Fine Arts
| alma_mater = Wake Forest University
Indiana University Bloomington
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| website = https://vcfa.edu/faculty-staff/clint-mccown/
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Clint McCown (born 1952) is an American author, poet, journalist, editor, actor, and university professor. He teaches fiction writing and screenwriting in the Department of English at Virginia Commonwealth University and in the low-residency Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program for the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Early life and education
A native of Tennessee, McCown spent his youth in Birmingham, Alabama and in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He attended Gettysburg Area High School.
He received B.A. and M.A. degrees from Wake Forest University and an M.F.A. from Indiana University Bloomington.{{cite web |title=Clint McCown, MFA |url=https://english.vcu.edu/directory/mccown.html |website=VCU Department of English |language=en}} He received professional theatre training at the Circle in the Square Theatre School on Broadway in 1973-74.
Career
McCown toured as a principal actor with the National Shakespeare Company and the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre.{{cite journal |title=Noo Jall |journal=Colorado Review |date=2020 |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=44–60 |doi=10.1353/col.2020.0094 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/774939/summary |issn=2325-730X|url-access=subscription }}{{failed verification|date=March 2023}}{{Cite web |title=Supplementum Epigraphicum GraecumSivrihissar (in vico). Op. cit. Op. cit. 334, n. 19. |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1874-6772_seg_a2_597 |access-date=2022-11-15 |website=Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum}}{{failed verification|date=March 2023|reason=Where does the reader find this? Not at the URL given}} From 1976-78 he worked as poet/dramatist-in-residence for the North Carolina Visiting Artist program.{{cite web |title=McCown, Clint 1952- |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/mccown-clint-1952 |website=Contemporary Authors|via=Encyclopedia.com}}{{failed verification|date=March 2023|reason=No mention of Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre}}
In 1978-79 he worked as Capitol Reporter for the Alabama Information Network, a chain of sixty-seven affiliated radio stations in Alabama. For his investigations of organized crime and political corruption, he received an Associated Press Award for Documentary Excellence in 1978.{{cite web |title=About Total Balance Farm by Clint McCown |url=http://www.versedaily.org/2017/aboutclintmccown.shtml |website=Verse Daily}}
After a stint as editor of Indiana Review, he taught at Beloit College in Wisconsin, where he founded, and was first editor of, the Beloit Fiction Journal.{{cite web |title=Beloit Fiction Journal behind the scenes |url=https://www.beloit.edu/live/news/3859-beloit-fiction-journal-behind-the-scenes |website=Beloit College|first=Grayson|last=Jensen |date=April 22, 2022|language=en}}{{failed verification|date=March 2023|reason=Jensen says he founded it. No mention of how long he edited it for.}}https://www.beloit.edu/live/profiles/2195-vol11-fall1985 He served four years as General Editor of the Intro Journals Project for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.{{cite web |title=Clint McCown {{!}} Blackbird v17n1 {{!}} #fiction |url=https://blackbird.vcu.edu/v17n1/features/mccown-wojahn/index-mccown.shtml |website=Virginia Commonwealth University}}
He has taught in the MFA program at Virginia Commonwealth University since 2004, where he has served as program director; and in the low-residency MFA program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts since 2005.{{Cite web |title=Clint McCown |url=https://vcfa.edu/faculty-staff/clint-mccown/|website=Vermont College of Fine Arts |language=en-US}}
Awards
His work has received several awards, including the Midwest Book Award for Fiction from MIPA,{{cite web |title=Fayetteville native receives Midwest Book Award |url=https://www.elkvalleytimes.com/living/fayetteville-native-receives-midwest-book-award/article_4d445686-386d-5acc-84ca-c580d01327f4.html |website=Elk Valley Times |language=en}} the Sister Mariella Gable Prize,{{cite web |title=2004 S. Mariella Gable Prize Winner |url=https://www.csbsju.edu/literary-arts-institute/sister-mariella-gable-prize/past-winners/excerpt-weatherman |website=College of Saint Benedict & Saint John's University |language=en}} the Society of Midland Authors Award for Adult Fiction,{{cite web |title=Past Winners |url=https://midlandauthors.org/past-winners/ |website=The Society of Midland Authors}} an Academy of American Poets Prize,{{cite web |title=Author Clint McCown to read at Writers Reading |url=https://news.central.edu/news-release/author-clint-mccown-to-read-at-writers-reading/ |website=Central College |language=en}} a National Endowment for the Arts grant,{{cite web |last1=Lewis |first1=Joy Schaleben |title=BLACKBOARD; College Journal's Lessons In Literature |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/05/education/blackboard-college-journals-lessons-in-literature.html |website=The New York Times |date=5 November 1989}}{{failed verification|date=March 2023}} a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers designation, and a Distinction in Literature Citation from the Wisconsin Library Association. He also received an Associated Press Award for Documentary Excellence for his investigations of organized crime and political corruption.{{cite web |last1=McNeill |first1=Brian |title=VCU professor and author Clint McCown inducted into Wake Forest Hall of Fame |url=https://news.vcu.edu/article/Author_and_VCU_English_Professor_Clint_McCown_inducted_into_Wake |website=VCU News |language=en-us}} In 2021 he was inducted into the Writers Hall of Fame at Wake Forest University.{{cite web |last=King |first=Kerry M.|title=Writers Hall of Fame 2020 |url=https://magazine.wfu.edu/2020/06/15/writers-hall-of-fame-2020/ |website=Wake Forest Magazine |date=15 June 2020}}
In short fiction, he is the only two-time recipient of the American Fiction Prize from Birch Lane Press in 1991 for Home Course Advantage, selected by Louise Erdrich{{cite web |last1=Cowles |first1=Gregory |title=Anthologies That (Mostly) Stand the Test of Time |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/anthologies-that-mostly-stand-the-test-of-time/ |website=New York Times |language=en |date=17 May 2013}} and in 1993 for Mule Collector, selected by Wallace Stegner.{{cite web |title=Linked Short Stories Are Perfectly Lifeless|url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1995-04-09-9504050354-story.html |website=Sun Sentinel}}{{Cite journal |last=Koy |first=Christopher |date=2020 |title=Critical Animal Studies (CAS) Applied to the Mule |url=https://www.grantjournal.com/issue/0902/PDF/0902koy.pdf |journal=Grant Journal |issue=9:2 |pages=31–35}}
Books
- Labyrinthiad (poems, Bard Press, 1975)
- Sidetracks (poems, Jackpine Press 1977)
- Wind Over Water (poems, Northwoods Press, 1984)
- The Member-Guest (novel, cloth, Doubleday, 1995){{cite web |last1=Becker |first1=Alida |title=IN SHORT: FICTION |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/25/books/in-short-fiction-790195.html |website=The New York Times |date=25 June 1995}}{{cite web |title=The Member-Guest|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780385476553 |website=Publishers Weekly}}
- War Memorials (novel, Graywolf Press, cloth, 2000; Houghton Mifflin, pbk., 2001{{cite web |last1=Hall |first1=Emily |title=Books in Brief: Fiction & Poetry |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/11/books/books-in-brief-fiction-poetry-201545.html |website=The New York Times |date=11 March 2001}}{{cite web |last1=Wilson |first1=Martin |title=Book Review: Readings |url=https://www.austinchronicle.com/books/2001-03-09/war-memorials-a-novel/ |website=The Austin Chronicle}}{{cite web |title=War Memorials|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781555973124 |website=Publishers Weekly}}
- The Weatherman (novel, Graywolf Press, cloth, 2004){{cite web |title=THE WEATHERMAN by Clint McCown |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781555974053 |website=Publishers Weekly}}
- Dead Languages (poems, Anhinga Press, 2008)
- Haints (novel, New Rivers Press, 2012)
- Total Balance Farm (poems, Press 53, 2017)
- The Dictionary of Unspellable Noises: New and Selected Poems, 1975-2018 (poems, Press 53, 2019)
- Music for Hard Times: Selected Stories (stories, Press 53, 2021)
- Mr. Potato Head vs. Freud: Lessons on the Craft of Writing Fiction (Press 53, 2021)
References
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Category:Circle in the Square Theatre School alumni
Category:Indiana University Bloomington alumni
Category:Wake Forest University alumni
Category:Virginia Commonwealth University faculty