Press Release: Michael Krasny Awarded 2020 Simpsonista Prize
LAFAYETTE, CA, September 9, 2020—The Simpson Literary Project will award its inaugural Simpsonista Prize to peerless storyteller, educator, and KQED public radio host Michael Krasny. The Simpsonista Prize celebrates individuals and institutions enabling writers and writing, readers and reading across generations.
What would our lives be like without storytelling? That’s not a rhetorical question. Without stories, without narratives, without poems, our lives would be, quite literally, unimaginable. We would not know who we are, or who anybody else is, because we could not speak about who we are.
The Simpson Literary Project supports writers of all ages. Michael Krasny has been giving voice to writers and storytellers for decades.
A giant in his field, Michael Krasny embodies the aspirations, the mission, of the Simpson Literary Project, which is all about storytelling and education. Distinguished author, professor, speaker, recipient of impressive laurels galore. Somehow, we feel we know him personally from his interviews—incisive, generous, humane, principled, witty interviews—on KQED’s Forum. He is the gold standard. He has interviewed most of our Joyce Carol Oates Prize Winners and Joyce herself, and even me. Let me tell you, it is a rare thing to learn something during an interview about one’s own work or oneself. But that is routinely the case with him. I think I figured out why. Yes, he is a fabulous wordsmith and asker of questions. But you know what he is also tremendous at? Listening. He is the consummate listener. There’s a lesson there for us who teach (don’t talk too much!), and those of us who write (get out of the way of your characters, hear them out!). Writers and readers and students and all people with a conscience are indebted to him for elevating and deepening the discussion of the crucial issues of our time, and specifically for celebrating the art of the story. In this hour of darkness, he is a towering figure of illumination.
— Joseph Di Prisco, Founding Chair, Simpson Literary Project
Michael Krasny will receive the Simpsonista award at the Simpson Literary Project’s Fourth Annual Celebration on September 20, 2020, to be held at the California Shakespeare Theater.
Michael Krasny, PhD, has been in broadcast journalism since 1983. He was with ABC in both radio and television and migrated to public broadcasting in 1993. He has been Professor of English at San Francisco State University and also taught at Stanford, the University of San Francisco and the University of California, as well as in the Fulbright International Institutes. A veteran interviewer for the nationally broadcast City Arts and Lectures, he is the author of a number of books, including “Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life” (Stanford University Press) “Spiritual Envy” (New World); “Sound Ideas” (with M.E. Sokolik/ McGraw-Hill); “Let There Be Laughter” (Harper-Collins) as well as the twenty-four lecture series in DVD, audio and book, “Short Story Masterpieces” (The Teaching Company). He has interviewed many of the world’s leading political, cultural, literary, science and technology figures, as well as major figures from the world of entertainment. He is the recipient of many awards and honors including the S.Y. Agnon Medal for Intellectual Achievement; The Eugene Block Award for Human Rights Journalism; the James Madison Freedom of Information Award; the Excellence in Journalism Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association; Career Achievement Award from the Society of Professional Journalists and an award from the Radio and Television News Directors Association. He holds a B.A. (cum laude) and M.A. from Ohio University and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin.
The Simpson Literary Project
The nonprofit Simpson Literary Project, established in 2016, is an innovative private/public enterprise, founded in partnership between the University of California, Berkeley, the Lafayette Library & Learning Center Foundation and the Contra Costa County Library. The Project fosters new literature, supports authors, and enhances the lives of the readers, writers, educators, & students in diverse communities throughout California and the nation as a whole.
Simpson Writing Workshops
The Project serves high-school age writers from Contra Costa County Juvenile Hall, Girls Inc. of Alameda County, and elsewhere through workshops conducted by Simpson Fellows, who are graduate students and creative writing teachers from the UC Berkeley English Department.
Joyce Carol Oates Prize
The eminent Joyce Carol Oates, formerly the Simpson Literary Project Writer-in-Residence at the Lafayette Library & Learning Center, is now an honorary member of the Simpson Literary Project Board of Directors. In addition, 2017 Joyce Carol Oates Prize Winner, T. Geronimo Johnson, author of Welcome to Braggsville (HarperCollins), 2018 Joyce Carol Oates Prize Winner Anthony Marra, author of The Tsar of Love and Techno (Hogarth), and 2019 Joyce Carol Oates Prize winner Laila Lalami, author of The Moor’s Account (Vintage), will continue their engagements with the Simpson Literary Project. Daniel Mason, author of A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth (Little, Brown and Company), is the 2020 Joyce Carol Oates Prize winner. Prize winners are awarded $50,000.
Simpsonistas
Simpsonistas: Tales from the Simpson Literary Project highlights brilliant work by writers associated with the Project, including Simpson Fellows as well as young writers appearing for the first time in print. Vol. 3 will be published in Fall 2020.
The Simpson Literary Project was established in 2016, through an innovative private/public partnership between the University of California, Berkeley, English Department and the Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation. The Project fosters new literature, supports authors, and enhances the lives of readers, writers, educators, librarians, and students in diverse communities in California and the nation. The Project offers high-school age writers writing workshops at no cost, led by Simpson Fellows, UC Berkeley graduate student writers; this year four workshops were scheduled to place at Contra Costa County Juvenile Hall (in the boys’ and the girls’ wings), Girls Inc-Alameda County, and Northgate High School. In addition, the Project causes to be published a nationally distributed annual anthology of Project-related artists, including Prize finalists as well as younger writers appearing in print for the first time: Simpsonistas: Tales from the Simpson Literary Project Vol. 3 (Rare Bird, Fall 2020).
For more information, please contact:
Diane Del Signore, 510-919-0970,
diane@newliteraryproject.org
newliteraryproject.org
For media inquiries, please contact:
Julia Callahan, 831-227-8550, julia@rarebirdlit.com
