Maegan Poland
We’re thrilled to announce the latest winner of the Bakwin Award: What Makes You Think You’re Awake? by Maegan Poland!
Blair’s final contest judge and award-winning author Carmen Maria Machado described the work as “a wonderful debut; a collection of frank, funny, and heartbreaking stories that delve into the mire of human loneliness.” Machado is the author of the story collection Her Body and Other Parties, a National Book Award finalist, and the memoir In the Dream House.
Poland’s stories usher in a world where mortal fear, the threat of violation, and the body’s looming betrayal drive us to look beyond surface appearances. The stories range from a mosquito-borne illness invading a small southern town, forcing its inhabitants to negotiate their muted, desperate lusts against the threats of virus-induced paralysis, to a pair of newlyweds on their honeymoon at a luxury resort, whose automated services quickly turn menacing.
Her stories move between richly imagined landscapes, bringing to life the deep loneliness at the heart of the modern condition, and the ephemerality of the bridges we build against the dark.
Poland teaches creative writing and composition at Drexel University in Philadelphia. She received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where her work was supported by a Black Mountain Institute fellowship. She also holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Mississippi, as well as a BFA in writing for screen and television from the University of Southern California, where she was a Trustee Scholar.
The Bakwin Award contest is open to female-identifying writers. Previous winners have included Chantel Acevedo, author of the coming-of-age novel A Falling Star, and writer May-lee Chai for her American Book Award–winning story collection Useful Phrases for Immigrants.