John Parras Professor • Department of Language Literature Culture and Writing Website John Parras received a B.A. in Creative Writing from Carnegie Mellon University and a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. A National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow in Prose, John Parras is the author of Fire on Mount Maggiore (University of Tennessee Press, 2005), which won the Peter Taylor Prize for the novel. His creative work has appeared in Conjunctions, Salmagundi, Painted Bride Quarterly, Xconnect, Oasis and other literary journals, and his chapbook, Dangerous Limbs: Prose Poems and Flash Fictions (2013), is published by Kattywompus Press.A Professor at William Paterson University, he chaired the Faculty Senate from 2011-2013. He currently directs the M.F.A. in Creative and Professional Writing program and the 5-Year B.A./M.F.A. program, coordinates the WP LLCW Department's Writing Workshops & Conferences Series, and serves as Editor of Map Literary: A Journal of Contemporary Writing and Art.In 2016 he was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship for Fiction Writing from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and was a contributor to the NEA Grant "Conversations in the Visual Arts through Music and Literature" awarded to the WP University Galleries in 2022. Recently, he was awarded a grant from the Library of America to direct two public Latino Poetry events in 2024-2025.To meet with Prof. Parras in his Virtual Office, go to https://wpunj.zoom.us/my/john.parras during his office hours or at a mutually agreed upon appointment time. Professional Interests Writing Program Administration; Digital Editing and Publishing; Grant Writing; Creative Writing Pedagogy Other Interests Digital Collage; Screenwriting Degrees PhD English & Comparative Literature, Columbia University New York, NY BA Creative Writing / English, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA Specialization Fiction and Creative Writing; 20th-Century & Contemporary Comparative Literature; Book and Magazine Publishing and Editing; Creativity & Innovation Studies Representative Publications "Song of Magsaysay" (short story); Conjunctions; 2014 https://conjunctions.com/articles/john-parras-c62/ Literary Theory in the Creative Writing Workshop; The Journal of Teaching Writing; 2005 https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/teachingwriting/article/view/1337/1286 Twitter Mind: On Jennifer Egan's 'Black Box'; Rain Taxi Review; 2012 https://www.raintaxi.com/twitter-mind/ "Ride" (flash fiction); CrossConnect: Writers of the Information Age; 1998 http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/xconnect/v4/i2/g/parras.html on V.S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River; The Literary Encyclopedia; 2003 https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7260 Representative Presentations Reading of Creative Work Literary Fellowship Showcase New Jersey State Council on the Arts , 2017 Sponsored Research Panel: Fiction Reading & Discussion Explorations Conference WPUNJ , 2017 Flashback, Flash-Forward: Jumping through Time in Fiction WP Spring Writer's Conference , 2015 Experimental Fiction Today Associated Writing Programs , 2013 Awards and Honors College of Humanities & Social Sciences Group Project Award for Map Literary William Paterson University 01/01/2015 The Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel Knoxville Writer's Guild 01/01/2004 Fellowships, Grants and Research National Endowment for the Arts: Grants for Arts Projects Grant New Jersey State Council on the Arts: Prose Writing Fellowship New Jersey Council for the Humanities: Writer's Conference Support Grant National Endowment for the Arts: Fiction Writing Fellowship New Jersey State Counil on the Arts: Writer's Conference Support Grant Notable Courses Taught Writing Sudden FictionWriting Experimental FictionThe Prose PoemBook & Magazine Editing & PublishingWriting for the Magazine MarketMFA Thesis Project SeminarCreative Writing Pedagogy Email 973 720 3067 349 Grant Hall please email me for office or Zoom appointment
