Bush Foundation Fellowships

Sheila O'Connor

2009 Bush Artist Fellowship
Minnesota
www.sheilaoconnor.com

Career Field: Literary Arts
Secondary Field: Fiction

Sheila O’Connor’s (Minneapolis, MN) second novel, Where No Gods Came, won the Minnesota Book Award as well as the Michigan Award for Literary Fiction. It was also chosen as a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Her previous novel, Tokens of Grace, received critical acclaim and was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. Her poems, stories and essays have been published in literary anthologies and journals, most recently Riding Shotgun: Women Writers Write about Their Mothers. Her short story, Just Say the Word, won the Tamarack Award. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, O’Connor teaches fiction at Hamline University where she serves as fiction editor for Water~Stone Review. Her work has been recognized with fellowships from the Bush Foundation (2001), The Loft Literary Center/McKnight Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Since 1984, she has worked extensively with young people and educators as a writer-in-the-residence.