SU prof wins award for short story

Marcia Moore, The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.
·1 min read

Nov. 16—SELINSGROVE — A Susquehanna University assistant professor of creating writing has received the Pushcart Prize for his short story.

Matthew Neill Null won the award for "The Dropper," a story originally published in The Kenyon Review, "The Dropper" is set in Null's home state of West Virginia and tells the story of the relationship between a father and child.

The story is loosely inspired by the coal-mining region where Null grew up and the interest in bird-dog training he shares with his grandfather.

"My mother is from Marion County, West Virginia, a coal-mining area that is the base of Sen. Joe Manchin's political machine, so the story is a tribute to that place and how the personal and political overlap," he said.

Since 1976, the Pushcart Prize honors the best poetry, short fiction and essays published in small presses during the previous year. Anthologies of the selected works are published annually, and Null's story will be featured in the forthcoming "Pushcart Prize 2024: Best of the Small Presses."

"I am extremely grateful to be recognized with this award," Null said. "For most of us, when you write and publish, usually you get a lot of silence back, so it makes you appreciate the times when the world takes notice."

Karla Kelsey, professor and co-department head of English and creative writing and director of Susquehanna's Writers Institute, called Null's recognition a "striking accomplishment."

"Awards of this sort shine a national light on Susquehanna University and the creative writing program as centers of literary excellence — which is great for students who graduate in the major," Kelsey said.