The New York Times
April 23, 1996
Short Story Award For Andre Dubus
Andre Dubus has been named this year’s winner of The Rea Award for the Short Story. The prize, which carries a cash award of $30,000, was awarded to Mr. Dubus for his collection Dancing After Hours.
The jurors for the award were the writers George Garrett, Barry Hannah and Jayne Anne Phillips. The citation accompanying the award praised Mr. Dubus for “his conspicuous and enduring chronicles or the human soul,” written in “muscular and trustworthy” prose.
Dancing After Hours was published nearly a decade after the author’s previous book, Selected Stories. The long silence followed an accident that left Mr. Dubus in a wheelchair. While stopping to help a motorist, he was struck by a car, and both his legs were shattered. His injury finds its way Into the title story or Dancing After Hours, about a quadriplegic who tells a young woman in a bar of his decision to go sky diving, a risky venture that causes the woman to re-examine her own life.
Mr. Dubus’s other works include the short story collections Separate Flights, Adultery and Other Choices, Finding a Girl in America, The Times Are Never So Bad and The Last Worthless Evening.
The Rea Award was established in 1986 by The Dungannon Foundation to honor a writer who has made a significant contribution to the short story. Previous winners have included Cynthia Ozick, Roblert Coover, Eudora Welty and Richard Ford.
The New York Times
May 9, 1996
A brief report on April 23 about the selection of Andre Dubus for the Rea Award for the Short Story misstated the selection criterion. The award was given to Mr. Dubus, as it has been to other writers, in recognition of his entire body of work, not just for the short story collection Dancing After Hours.
Lake Charles American Press
Lake Charles, LA
April 24, 1996
Lake Charles native wins short story award
By Mike Jones Staff Writer
Andre Dubus, a Lake Charles native and McNeese State University graduate, has been awarded the $30,000 Rea Award for Short Story given annually by the Dungannon Foundation to a living U.S. writer.
The award jury selected Dubus “for his conspicuous and enduring chronicles of the American soul,” they wrote. “His prose is muscular and trustworthy and, under his hand the form of the story thrives with basic life.”
Dubus is committed to the short story as his primary form of fiction writing. Among his short stories are Separate Flights, Adultery and Other Choices, Finding A Girl in America, The Times Are Never So Bad, The Last Worthless Evening, Selected Stories and his newest collection, Dancing After Hours.
The latest collection, Dancing After Hours, was published this year — almost a decade after his previous collection, Selected Stories.
The gap in his work was because of an accident. While helping another motorist, he was struck by a car. Both of his legs were shattered; he lost one of them, and lost the use of the other.
In Dancing After Hours, a quadriplegic tells about his decision to go skydiving.
Andre Dubus was born in Lake Charles in 1936 and grew up in Lafayette where he attended the Christian Brothers Catholic School.
He graduated from McNeese with a B.A. degree in 1958 and spent five years in the U.S . Marine Corps.
He received an M.F.A. degree from the University of Iowa in 1965 and taught at Bradford, College, Bradford, Mass. From 1966-1984.
He is also the author of two novels. The Lieutenant and, Voices from the Moon.
Other awards he has received include the PEN/Malamud Award, the Jean Stein Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Andre Dubus currently lives in Haverhill, Mass.
The Litchfield County Times
Litchfield, CT
April 26, 1996
1996 Rea Award Goes to Dubus
Roxbury—Andre Dubus, author of the short-story collection “Dancing After Hours,” has been awarded the $30,000 1996 Rea Award for the short story.
The award was founded in 1986 by Roxbury resident and retired businessman Michael Rea and is given annually to a living American writer who has made “a significant contribution to the art form of the short story.” The winner is chosen secretly by a jury made up of accomplished short-story writers.
Members of this year’s jury were the writers George Garrett, Barry Hannah and Jane Anne Phillips.
“The people who have won Rea Awards are originals. They have one thing in common—each is a one-of-a-kind, writers who have produced a work bearing their own fingerprint,” Mr. Rea told the Litchfield County Times in 1988. Previous winners include Cynthia Ozick (1986), Rober Coover (1987), Eudora Welty (1992) andn Richard Ford (1995).
Mr. Dubus, who lives in Haverhill, Mass., was born in 1936 in Lake Charles, La. And is a Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of Iowa’s master of fine arts program. In 1986, Mr. Dubus was hit by a car while helping two motorists on the highway and lost one leg and the use of the other. He is the author of two novels, The Lieutenant and Voices From the Moon, as well as seven short-story collections including Adultery and Other Choices and The Last Worthless Evening. He has been married and divorced three times, a press release says.
Oxford Eagle
Oxford, MS
Thursday April 25, 1996
Andre Dubus wins 1996 Rea Award
By Lisl Cadle
In New York
The $30,000 Rea Award for the Short Story has been awarded to Louisiana writer Andre Dubus.
Jurors for the 1996 Rea Award for the Short Story were the writers George Garrett, Barry Hannah and Jayne Anne Phillips.
In selecting this year’s winner, the jury gave the following citation:
“We vote the award in the short story to Andre Dubus for his conspicuous and enduring chronicles of the American soul. His prose is muscular and trustworthy and, under his hand the form of the story thrives with basic life.”
The Rea award of the Sort Story was established in 1986, to honor a writer who has made a significant contribution to the short story. It is given annually by the Dungannon Foundation to a living American writer. The award cannot be applied for; the recipient is nominated and selected by a jury.
Previous winners of The Rea Award for the Short Story were Cynthia Ozick (1986), Robert Coover (1987), Donald Barthelme (1988), Tobias Wolff (1989), Joyce Carol Oates (1990), Paul Bowles (1991), Eudora Welty (1992), Grace Paley (1993), Tillie Olsen (1994) and Richard Ford (1995).
Andre Dubus has been committed to the short story as his primary form of fiction writing. His short story collections include Separate Flights, Adultery and Other Choices, Finding A Girl in America, The Times Are Never So Bad, The Last Worthless Evening, Selected Stories and a new collection Dancing After Hours.
Dancing After Hours, published in early 1996, appeared almost a decade after his previous collection, Selected Stories. The long silence was due to an accident which left Andre Dubus bound to a wheelchair. Stopping to help a motorist in trouble on his way home one night, he was struck by a car, shattering both of his legs. His belief in living life to the fullest is reflected in the title story of Dancing After Hours. One night in a bar, a quadriplegic tells about his decision to go skydiving. His risk-taking influences a young woman, who has led a self-imposed lonely life to open herself up to people and new experiences.
“What he gives us is an unastonished account of his characters’ puzzlements and desires, and those small moments in which momentous movements of the heart happen,” said Eva Hoffman in her New York Times review of Selected Stories. “If you’re willing to listen to the nuances of his music, you’ll find that, in his own register, he has near perfect pitch that can transfigure the commonplace.”
About Dancing After Hours, Paul Gray said in Time: “Dubus is an artist who manages to produce work at once harrowing and exhilarating.” Richard Bausch said in his New York Times Review: “In demonstrating, once again why he is celebrated as a writer of short fiction, he also shows why the form itself is so persistent. For the fact is that there are matters of the spirit that short story addresses better than an other literary art.” Elmore Leonard sad about Dubus’s work: “You’ll recognize Andre’s people; you might very well be one of them.”
Plam Beach Daily News
April 21, 1996
The rest of the story — Winner of this year’s Rea Award for the Short Story is Andre Dubus.
By Jan Sjostrom/ Arts
The award is the biggest short story prize and one of the largest given to fiction writers.
The distinction is sweeter than ever this year. The prize has increased from $25,000 to $30,000.
The award is presented annually by the Dungannon Foundation to a living American writer who has made a significant contribution to the short story. It was established in 1986 by part-time Palm Beach resident Michael Rea
Writers cannot apply for the award. They must be nominated and selected by a jury made up of distinguished members of the literary profession.
Serving on this year’s jury were award-winning writers George Garrett, who is Hoyns professor of creative writing at the University of Virginia; Barry Hannah, writer-in-residence at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Miss.; and Jayne Anne Phillips, visiting lecturer in fiction at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.
Past Rea Award winners include Cynthia Ozick, Paul Bowles, Eudora Welty and Richard Ford, who recently won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel Independence Day.
Dubus was born in Louisiana in 1936. He has written several novels, but his primary form is the short story. Among his short story collections are Separate Flights, Adultery and Other Choices, Selected Stories and Dancing After Hours.
Dancing After Hours was published earlier this year, nearly a decade after his last short story collection, Selected Stories.
The long silence was the result of an accident in 1986.,which left Dubus in a wheelchair. Dubus was struck by a car after he stopped to help a motorist in distress.
Dubus’ short stories have been praised for their telling authenticity.
“What he gives us is an unastonished account of his characters’ puzzlements and desires, and those small moments in which momentous movements of the heart happen,” wrote Eva Hoffman in her New York Times review of Dubus’ Selected Stories.
Dubus’ several honors include the PEN/Malamud Award, the Jean Stein Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Haverhill, Mass.