October 9, 2015

Centenary University Professor Emilia Phillips is Honored with 2015 Nonfiction Prize

Hackettstown, N.J. – Centenary University Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, Emilia Phillips, was awarded the 2015 second annual Nonfiction Prize from StoryQuarterly, the Literary Magazine at Rutgers–Camden for her essay “Excisions,” which focuses on excisive and reconstructive surgeries of her face in the wake of cancer.

StoryQuarterly was founded in 1975, and has been publishing and emerging established writers for over 30 years. Originally an independent quarterly based in Illinois, its contributors’ work has been selected for inclusion in the annual collections The Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize. In the summer of 2008, Rutgers University–Camden acquired StoryQuarterly, and is now managed by many of the universities own professors.

“We, as a department, are so proud of Professor Phillips for receiving such a prestigious award,” says Dr. Sharon Decker, Chair for the English and Foreign Language Department at Centenary University and Assistant Professor of English. “I am pleased to have her teaching here at the College and sharing with her students a unique and new approach to literature.”

Phillips is the author of the two poetry collections, Signaletics and Groundspeed from the University of Akron Press, and three chapbooks including Beneath the Ice Fish Like Souls Look Alike (Bull City Press, 2015). Her poems and essays appear in Agni, Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review, New England Review, and elsewhere. Since 2014, Philips has been working on her third manuscript titled Hollow Point, a hybrid collection of poems and lyric essays. These pieces of writing talk about the principles of narrative and bodily wholeness through real-life accounts of a facial reconstruction after an excision of cancer.

“In this book, I want to examine the way in which violence reshapes women socially, emotionally, and physically,” says Phillips.

Founded in 1867 by the Newark Conference of the United Methodist Church, Centenary University’s academic program integrates a solid liberal arts foundation with a strong career orientation. This mix is designed to provide an educational experience that prepares students to succeed in the increasingly global and interdependent world.

Centenary University’s main campus is located in Hackettstown, N.J., with its equestrian facility in Washington Township (Morris County).  The Centenary University School of Professional Studies offers degree programs in two locations: Parsippany and Edison, and at corporate sites throughout New Jersey.  The School of International Programs recruits international students for study at Centenary and Centenary students for study abroad.