Dr. Ben Stroud, an associate professor in English, is a recipient of the Ohio Arts Council’s Individual Excellence Awards for Work in Literary Arts, Choreography and Music Composition.
Stroud received a Fiction award for his short story, “Isabella; or, the Coin Purse.”
Ben Stroud is an associate professor in English.
Set in the 1840s, “Isabella; or, the Coin Purse” is focused on Isabella, the wife of a historian of Renaissance Italy. Isabella considers reuniting with the son she gave birth to in Lyon, France, prior to her marriage, while at the same time her husband, James, is trying to get access to a family archive so that he can answer a question in his major historical project, a biography of the 15th-century condottiero Federico da Montefeltro.
Stroud received $5,000 as part of his award.
“It’s always great to receive this kind of recognition,” he said. “As I often tell my students, most of writing is dealing with what’s not working in a piece or – once you’ve submitted your work somewhere – getting rejections. So, if you write, you have to put up with a lot of disappointment. It’s a boost when things go the other way.
“The experience I get submitting work for awards like this, and in publishing my writing, is experience that informs my teaching and the advice I give students,” Stroud added. “It helps me because I can use my own experience to give them advice as they move forward as writers.”
