Karen Salyer McElmurray

Karen Salyer McElmurray grew up in eastern Kentucky with a difficult childhood. Her mother suffered depression, and McElmurray moved around between a few new towns as her father tried to settle into a new job with the state education department. During her summers, she spent time with her paternal grandmother, and shared a love of words with her childhood best friend. They wrote poems together, igniting McElmurray's love of writing. At fourteen, her parents separated and McElmurray stayed with her father.[4] Two years later, she became pregnant and gained all the life experience necessary for her to later pen her book Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother’s Journey, her award-winning memoir about the birth and closed-adoption of her son.[5]

• Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of Georgia in 1997
• M.A. in English/Writing from Hollins University in 1989
• MFA in Fiction from the University of Virginia in 1986
• B.A. in Philosophy and Literature from Berea College in 1980

McElmurray has served at numerous colleges and universities as an instructor, professor, and writer-in-residence. She has won faculty awards from Lynchburg College,[6][7] and was named a Distinguished Alumni from Berea College.[8] McElmurray has also worked as editor of multiple literary magazines like Arts & Letters and Prisim. She most recently served as writer-in-residence for Hollins University.[9]

• Emory and Henry College, Fall Conference Honoree, 2014[12]
• Annie Dillard Award for the Essay, The Bellingham Review, Fall 2013[10]
• Distinguished Alumni Award, Berea College, 2013[8]
• Lit Life. Novel of the Year, for The Motel of the Stars. January 2009[13]
• Nominee, Weatherford Award for Fiction,[14] for The Motel of the Stars, January 2009[15]
• Editor’s Pick, Oxford American, November 2009.[1]
• Linda Bruckheimer Series in Fiction, Sarabande Books, 2007[16]
• Georgia Author of the Year Award (Memoir), for Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother's Journey, 2005[17][18]
• Appalachian Book of the Year, for Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother's Journey, Appalachian Writers Association, 2005[18]
• Finalist, Shenandoah Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, 2005[19]
• National Book Critics Circle,[20] Notable Book, for Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother's Journey, Winter 2005[9]
• Kentucky Educational Television Book Club Selection, for Strange Birds in the Tree of Heaven, June 2005[21]
• Association of Writers and Writing Programs, Award in Creative Nonfiction, 2003[2]
• Lillie Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature, Morehead State University, 2001[3]
• Nominee, Shirley Rosser Excellence in Teaching Award,[6] Lynchburg College, Spring 2001
• Nominee, Pushcart Prize, for “June 23, 1973,” May 2001
• Nominee, Lillian Anne Smith Award for Best Novel, 2001[22]
• Nominee, Virginia Prize for Fiction, Summer 2000
• James A. Huston Excellence in Scholarship Award, Lynchburg College, 2000[7]
• Nominee, Appalachian Book of the Year, Appalachian Writers Association, 1999[23]
• Finalist, AWP Award Series, Association of Writers and Writing Programs, 1998
• Finalist, Writing Fellowship, Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, 1995, 1993
• Nominee, Pushcart Prize, for “The Logic of Angels,” 1994
• Literature Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, 1993[24]
• Nominee, Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction, 1989[25]
• James Purdy Prize for Fiction, 1989[25]

• Author Website