University of Iowa News Release

Feb. 16, 2012

At A Glance

Bertino and Simpson win 2012 Iowa Short Fiction Awards from UI Press

The winners of the 2012 Iowa Short Fiction Awards are Marie-Helene Bertino and Chad Simpson. Bertino won the 2012 Iowa Short Fiction Award for her collection Safe as Houses, and Simpson's Tell Everyone I Said Hi is the winner of the 2012 John Simmons Short Fiction Award.

The recipients were selected by Jim Shepard, author of You Think That's Bad: Stories. The collections will be published by the UI Press this fall.

A graduate of Brooklyn College, Bertino received a Pushcart prize in 2007 and a Pushcart Special Mention in 2011, which is also the year she was chosen as a Center for Fiction NYC Emerging Writer's Fellow.

Simpson is the recipient of a fellowship in prose from the Illinois Arts Council and scholarships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee writers' conferences. He received an MFA from Southern Illinois University, and he teaches at Knox College, where he received the Philip Green Wright/Lombard College Prize for Distinguished Teaching in 2010.

The short fiction awards are given to a first collection of fiction in English and are administered through the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Learn more at http://www.uiowapress.org/new-and-noteworthy/02-03-2012/2012-iowa-short-fiction-award-winners-announced.

*

College of Education graduate student Storlie named leadership intern

Cassandra Storlie, a third-year counselor education and supervision doctoral student in the University of Iowa College of Education, was selected as a recipient of the Chi Sigma Iota Leadership Internship for 2012-13.

The national Leadership Fellows and Interns Committee selected Storlie from a pool of more than 14,000 counselors in 267 university-based training programs. The committee selected 10 individuals for this opportunity. Of those, Storlie was selected as one of two leadership interns, which comes with a $1,200 award.

Malik Henfield, an assistant professor who nominated Storlie, says she is a well-respected educator who embodies academic leadership excellence and achievement.

He adds that given her diverse educational background in nursing, psychology, and counseling, Storli is able to dissect the unique experiences of career counseling with undocumented students and families in a way that few can.

Storlie's research interests also include transition planning for students with Asperger's Syndrome and ethical decision-making models. She is president of Chi Sigma Iota's, Rho Upsilon Chapter, a counseling honor society, and serves as chair of the Illinois Mental Health Counselors Association and American Counseling Association Midwest Region's ethics committees.

*

UI Gallery series present absurdist-western romp, Sidewinders

The Gallery series of the University of Iowa Department of Theatre Arts will present Sidewinders, an absurdist-western genderqueer romp written by Iowa Playwrights Workshop student Basil Kreimendahl and directed by Nathan Halvorson, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 2 and 3, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 4, in Theatre B of the UI Theatre Building.

In Sidewinders, Dakota and Bailey find themselves lost, possibly upside down, in a strange world with even stranger characters. Their journey to getting right side up provokes questions of sex anatomy, transgenderism, and who we really are aside from what's between our thighs.

Basil Kreimendahl is a founder of Out On The Edge: Louisville's Queer Youth Playwrights Collective and Louisville Dramatists. Her plays have been read and produced throughout the Southeast, Chicago, and Louisville. She has received an Arts Meets Activism grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, and her work has been published by Dramatic Publishing.

The production is free for UI students with a valid UI ID, and $5 for general public. Tickets will be on sale at the door an hour before curtain time.

This production includes material of an adult nature. Potential audience members who are concerned about whether it is appropriate for them should contact the department at 319-335-2700 for additional information.

--

Photos for At A Glance items, if available, may be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/uinews.

Campus events are searchable on the UI Master Calendar: http://calendar.uiowa.edu.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation to participate in a program, please contact the sponsoring department in advance.