2001 - Otis Haschemeyer

Haschemeyer, currently a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, won the award on the strength of The Storekeeper, a creative non-fiction essay that originally appeared in the Missouri Review and was recently selected to appear in The Best New American Voices of 2003. Painstakingly researched, The Storekeeper is based on the experiences of a Desert Storm sniper Haschemeyer knew while living in Arkansas. The author plans to incorporate the material of the essay into a longer work, one that will depend heavily on the facts of the Gulf War and the terrorist attack of September 11^th, and will focus on what Haschemeyer finds most compelling -- moral characters who struggle to reconcile their lives in an increasingly confusing world.

Haschemeyer earned an M.F.A. from the University of Arkansas. In addition to the Missouri Review, his work has appeared in Fourteen Hills: The SFSU Review, Louisiana Literature, and the Alaska Quarterly Review.