Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of Lincoln's Melancholy, is the new Director of the Rose O'Neill Literary House. Shenk succeeds novelist Benjamin Anastas, who served as interim director during the 2005-2006 academic year. Shenk will also teach creative writing.
A New York-based writer and teacher, Shenk has published essays and reviews in The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Magazine, The New York Times, The Nation, GQ and Mother Jones, as well as in a national bestselling anthology, Unholy Ghost. His first book, Lincoln's Melancholy, was published by Houghton Miffl in last fall and was named a New York Times "Editor's Choice" for 2005.
Since 1995, Shenk has also worked as a writing instructor at the New School University and, during 2003, at New York University; he has held editorial and correspondent positions at U.S. News & World Report, The Economist, The Washington Monthly and The New Republic.
He has been recognized with fellowships at numerous writers' colonies and arts organizations, and he was a Scholar at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Shenk is a 1994 graduate of Harvard University.
"I'm excited about this job because it combines three things that I love," Shenk said. "I love to write—not for the daily grind of it, but for the moments of insight and clarity that sometimes come.
I love the company of fellow writers. And, finally, I love creating—and spending time in—environments that value the beauty of language, the vulnerability of honest expression, and the search for life's deep, abiding truths."
300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, Maryland 21620 | 410-778-2800 | 800-422-1782