2013 Was Another Banner Year For Faculty and Alumni Authors

The end of the calendar year brought its usual spate of “best of 2013” lists, and a number of familiar names affiliated with Rutgers University-Newark made their way onto prestigious lists of 2013’s best books. 

Four professors from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences-Newark, along with one alumna from the Graduate School-Newark, were recognized for literary works published in 2013.  Jayne Anne Phillips, Rigoberto González, and Brenda Shaughnessy all teach in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program, of which Phillips is founding director. James Goodman is a professor of history, while Christa Parravani is a 2011 graduate of the MFA program.

Here is a list of the accolades earned by these authors.

The Wall Street Journal named Jayne Anne Phillips' Quiet Dell (Scribner, 2013) one of its 10 best fiction books of the year.

Rigoberto González's newest book of poetry, Unpeopled Eden (Four Way, 2013), was named among the top 10 poetry books of the year by Slate Magazine. It was also named one of the “10 Notable Books of 2013” by Poets.org, the site of the Academy of American Poets.  Earlier last year he was awarded the 2013 “Writer for Writers” award by Poets & Writers, Inc.

James Goodman's book, But Where Is The Lamb? Imagining The Story of Abraham and Isaac (Schocken, 2013), tops Maclean's magazine’s list of the 20 best books of the year. It also has been recognized by the Jewish Voice as one of 2013’s 10 best Jewish books.

Brenda Shaughnessy's Our Andromeda was named the best book of poetry by Cosmopolitan Magazine, in its listing of “the 22 best books for women, by women.”

In that same Cosmopolitan listing, MFA alumnna Christa Parravani's memoir Her was named as one of the five best non-fiction books.