Pinckney Benedict

Pinckney Benedict (born 1964) is an American short-story writer and novelist whose work often reflects his Appalachian background.

Biography Benedict was raised in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, where his family had a dairy farm.

Along with his wife, the novelist Laura Benedict (Isabella Moon, and Calling Mr. Lonelyhearts), he edits the biennial Surreal South fiction anthology series (Press 53). The third volume of the series, Surreal South '11, was published in October 2011.

He wrote the screenplay for the feature film Four Days, which starred Kevin Zegers, Colm Meaney, Lolita Davidovich, and William Forsythe.

He serves on the core faculty of the low-residency MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina.

Published works Town Smokes (short stories), 1987 The Wrecking Yard (short stories), 1992 Dogs of God (novel), 1995 Surreal South (edited anthology, with Laura Benedict), 2007 Surreal South '09 (edited anthology, with Laura Benedict), 2009 Surreal South '11 (edited anthology, with Laura Benedict), 2011 Miracle Boy and Other Stories, Press 53, 2010

Awards He is the recipient, among other prizes, of a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a fiction grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a Literary Fellowship from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, a Michener Fellowship from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the Chicago Tribune's Nelson Algren Award, and Britain's Steinbeck Award.