Holy Cross English Professor Selected for RISCA Fellowship Merit Award in Fiction

Stephanie Reents, associate professor of English at the College of the Holy Cross, was selected for a 2017 Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) Fellowship Merit Award in Fiction by the Rhode Island Arts Commission for her novel “The Kissing List” (Hogarth/Crown, 2012). RISCA is an organization that encourages public interest and participation in the arts and serves as the liaison to the state arts community. RISCA, which receives funding from the Rhode Island State General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts, provides grants annually to the state's non-profit organizations, schools, and individual artists,

“While I was thrilled to win this fellowship, the most exciting part was that RISCA sent along comments from the committee that read my stories. It was such a gift to hear that the stories I wrote during my sabbatical could mean something to a group of strangers,” said Reents. “I'm also grateful to the state of Rhode Island for supporting the arts, and to Holy Cross for giving me time to work on a second collection of stories.”

“The Kissing List” was an Editor’s Choice in The New York Times Book Review. Reents’s short stories have also appeared in the O. Henry Prize Stories, Best of the West, among other journals. Her work has also appeared in Best American Short Stories and the Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses.

Reents also recently reviewed the novel “Losing It” by Emma Rathbone, a novel about a former Olympian’s wish to lose her virginity, which was published in The New York Times.

This “Holy Cross in the News” item by Kelsey Littlefield ’17.