Allen Wier

Allen Wier (pronounced "wire"), a writer born in 1946 in San Antonio, Texas and spent parts of his childhood in Louisiana and Mexico. He is a professor at the University of Tennessee. He has taught at Longwood College, Carnegie-Mellon University, Hollins College, the University of Texas, Florida International University, and the University of Alabama where he directed the Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing.

In 2003, Wier was inducted into the prestigious Fellowship of Southern Writers along with Barry Hannah and Yusef Komunyakaa among others. He is widely published in anthologies and periodicals, including "The New York Times", "Ploughshares", and "The Southern Review". He was previously married to the poet Dara Wier.

Education

*Baylor University (BA)
*Louisiana State University (MA)
*Bowling Green University (MFA)

Awards

*Awarded the 27th John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, to be presented in November, 2008
*Special mention for his short story "The Taste of Dirt" in the "Pushcart Prize" volume 2005
*Inducted into the Fellowship of Southern Writers in 2003
*University of Tennessee Distinguished Teaching Chair, 2000-2003
*University of Tennessee Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Achievement, 1998
*Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction--Fellowship of Southern Writers, 1997
*Travel Writer of the Year-- [http://www.800alabama.com/ Alabama Bureau of Tourism and Travel] , 1994
*Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction
* [http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/Paisano/ Dobie-Paisano Fellowship] --University of Texas and Texas Institute of Letters
* [http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/blwc/ Breadloaf] Fellowship
* [http://www.wtamu.edu/til/ Texas Institute of Letters] Award in Short Fiction
*National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship

Books

*"Blanco" (LSU Press 1978, Avon/Bard 1980, and Harper & Row 1989)
*"Things About to Disappear" (LSU Press 1978 and Avon/Bard 1980)
*"Departing as Air" (Simon & Schuster, 1983)
*"A Place for Outlaws" (Harper & Row, 1989)
*"Tehano" (Southern Methodist University Press, 2006)

Other Publications

*(editor) "Walking on Water and other stories" (University of Alabama Press 1996)
*(editor) "Voicelust: Eight Contemporary Writers on Style" (University of Nebraska Press 1985)

External links

* [http://www.allenwier.com/ Allen Wier's website]
* [http://web.utk.edu/~english/gf_wier.php/ Allen Wier at the University of Tennessee]
* [http://www.knoxvillewritersguild.org/wier.htm/ Allen Wier at The Knoxville Writers' Guild]
* [http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmArticleID=1534/ Selection from "Departing as Air" in "Ploughshares"]
* [http://www.amazon.com/s?index=books&rank=-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank&field-author-exact=Allen%20Wier/ Allen Wier's books on Amazon]
* [http://www.denverpost.com/reviews/ci_3656782/ A review of "Tehano" in the Denver Post]