University of Virginia creative writing professor Deborah Eisenberg, the author of five collections of fiction, became the fourth UVA faculty member since 2001 to receive a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship—the same "genius grant" that local blues musician Corey Harris received in 2007. Eisenberg told UVA Today that the cash award "’represents time’ for writing," and also mentioned that she would take her current crop of students out to dinner to celebrate. Too late to enroll, Professor Eisenberg?
Eisenberg’s most recent collection of short fiction, Twilight of the Superheroes, won raves from The New York Times (read ’em here and here; read the first chapter here). Read her MacArthur bio and see the complete list of 2009 fellows here.
MacArthur fellows are nominated by a group of organization-selected experts. But I’ll bet you could name a few local geniuses; what other Charlottesville residents or UVA faculty members deserve the genius paycheck?
