Interview with Daniel Mason, 2020 Joyce Carol Oates Prize Winner

Joseph Di Prisco interviews 2020 Joyce Carol Oates Prize Winner Daniel Mason. The award-winning author of The Winter Soldier (Little, Brown), Daniel Mason is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Stanford University Department of Psychiatry, and author of four influential, powerful books of fiction, including A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth (Little, Brown). He will appear, it is hoped, in the Bay Area in October 2020 and participate in a 10-day residency during the spring semester of 2021. He is the fourth winner of the annual $50,000 award. The Joyce Carol Oates Prize recognizes annually a midcareer fiction writer who has earned a distinguished reputation and the approbation and gratitude of readers. While there are numerous prizes for emerging writers, this prize is for an already emerged author of national consequence—short stories and/or novels—at the relatively middle stage of a burgeoning career. By midcareer we mean an author who has published at least two notable books of fiction, and who has yet to receive capstone recognition such as a Pulitzer or a MacArthur. Otherwise there are no age, geographical, or stylistic restrictions. The winner receives a $50,000 award to encourage and support forthcoming work. Learn more about the Simpson Literary Project and the Joyce Carol Oates prize on our website: https://www.simpsonliteraryproject.or...