Lesley Arimah Wins AWP Writing Award

Each year AWP offers three scholarships of $500 each to emerging writers who wish to attend a writers’ conference, center, retreat, festival, or residency. The scholarships are applied to fees for winners who attend one of the member programs in AWP’s Directory of Conferences & Centers. Winners and six finalists also receive a one-year individual membership in AWP.  This years winner in fiction is:

“Who Will Greet You at Home” by Lesley Arimah

Lesley Nneka Arimah lives in Minneapolis, MN, and her work has appeared in PANK, Granta, Mid-American Review, Per Contra, and other publications. When she’s not wasting time on Twitter, Lesley is at work on a novel and a collection of short stories.

Of Lesley Arimah’s submission, judge Matt Bell wrote:
This is a gorgeously written story, the rare fairy tale-like story that feels utterly new even as it draws on existing tradition. Ripe with invention, rich with emotion, and with a keen eye for the deep powers of hope and fear that can fuel expectant motherhood, this is a beautiful story by a writer whose work I hope to follow closely in the future.

Lesley Arimah is a 2015 Kimbilio Fellow.