Mary Wood Fellow Reading 2018

April 11, 2018

The Literary House hosted a fiction reading for this year’s Mary Wood Fellow, Amber Dermont

The Mary Wood Fellowship is awarded every even-numbered year to a female-identifying writer who has published at least one book. On Wednesday, April 10th, the Literary House hosted a fiction reading for this year’s Mary Wood Fellow, Amber Dermont. Amber Dermont received an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Houston. She is also the author of two books, a novel called The Starboard Sea, and a short story collection titled Damage Control. Her book, The Starboard Sea, was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the 2014 Townsend Prize for Fiction. Dermont is currently a professor of English at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

When first introducing Dermont, Dr. Hall described her literature as “luminous,” and spoke briefly about her two published works, The Starboard Sea, and her short story collection Damage Control. Before reading a short story of hers titled “The Snow Monkeys of Dilley, Texas,” Dermont said “at its best, writing a short story is akin to a magician inventing a new trick.” She also talked about her voice and style of writing, and gave advice to the student writers at the event. After the reading of her story, Dermont answered a few questions asking about making a living as a writer, and responded by saying “you have to live in your stories, be able to deal with the heartbreak of not getting stories published, and create a community of other writers to collaborate with.”