Ciao to Prizewinning Author Matthew Neill Null ’06
Matthew Neill Null, a member of Washington and Lee University’s Class of 2006, will soon be practicing his craft — fiction writing — in Rome. Last month he won the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
His prize citation reads: “Matthew Neill Null has set himself the heroic task of describing the earth’s fallen beauty by chronicling his native West Virginia. The task is Faulknerian but he has the back for it.”
Matt was featured in “An Outlaw Trade,” the Winter 2015 cover story of the W&L alumni magazine. He has two acclaimed books to his credit, the short story collection “Allegheny Front” and the novel “Honey from the Lion.”
Be sure to check out Matt’s website, which features links to stories, interviews, essays and excerpts from “Honey from the Lion.”
The Rome Prize goes to approximately 30 “emerging artists and scholars who represent the highest standard of excellence and who are in the early or middle stages of their working lives,” says the academy’s website.
With this honor, Matt receives a stipend, a place to write, plus room and board. During his time in Rome — where he’ll live in a villa that dates to 1650 — he will enjoy “an atmosphere conducive to intellectual and artistic freedom, interdisciplinary exchange, and innovation,” also according to the academy’s website, which you can peruse here.
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