Posted on Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Dr. Patricia Marchesi
Dr. Patricia Marchesi, Assistant Professor of English at LaGrange College, recently won the grand prize for unpublished fiction in the Eyelands International Fiction Awards. The competition is sponsored by Eyelands Literary Magazine and Strange Day Books, based in Greece.
Marchesi, who specializes in Shakespeare and Renaissance drama, said she was thrilled to be recognized by such a prestigious organization.
“I’m honored to be able to represent the English department and the college in a positive way,” she said.
Her academic research into the role of trees and forests in Shakespeare’s plays led to her understanding of the important role of precious and rare old-growth forests, and inspired her to write her winning composition, “Florissant.”
“It’s a young-adult fantasy set in Georgia,” she said. “Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is the backdrop, and the story takes place in an imaginary old-growth forest inspired by the Chattahoochee National Forest.”
Before embarking on the young adult fantasy genre, Marchesi wrote two science fiction novels for middle grade readers, “Shelby & Shauna Kitt and the Dimensional Holes” and “Shelby & Shauna Kitt and the Alterax Buttons,” both of which were self-published and won Children’s Literary Classics gold awards.
Marchesi said she hopes her recognition will help more students become aware of the possibilities and rewards that can come from being an English major.
“The reading and studying of literature taught me so much – about motives and behavior, about the pacing of stories, the use of imagery, the craft of writing sentences and the potential beauty of language,” she said.
Marchesi is originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and also has lived in Austria and England. In the United States, she has lived in New York, Delaware, Colorado, Arizona and Georgia.
Category: Faculty, College, Academics
Keywords: winner English author
