Janna McMahan

Janna McMahan is an American author who wrote her first novel when she was in her early thirties. She has published four novels, a novella, and several short stories.

Janna McMahan
BornJanna McMahan
(1963-07-26) July 26, 1963
Campbellsville, Taylor County, Kentucky
Occupationnovelist, literary journalist, essayist
NationalityAmerican
Period2002 - present
GenreSouthern literature
Subjectart
Website
www.jannamcmahan.com

Biography

McMahan was raised in rural Campbellsville, Kentucky. An early reader, she volunteered at her local library when she was eleven, fueling a lifelong desire to write. She earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky and an M.A. from the University of South Carolina, both in Mass Communications. McMahan spent many years working in public relations. She also served as a ghost writer for a number of business clients. McMahan is a widely published essayist and frequently contributes articles to magazines on visual and literary art. She has taught creative writing, speech writing, rhetoric and mass communication theory.

Awards and recognition

In 1998, McMahan won the South Carolina Fiction Project[1] a literary competition sponsored by the Post and Courier[2] and the South Carolina Arts Commission,[3] for her short story "The Snag". Her short story "Seed Money" won the 2002 Piccolo Spoleto Fiction Open [4] and "Pluff Mud" won the 2004 Colossal Short Story Contest,[5] sponsored by the Columbia (South Carolina) Free Times.[6] Surface tension, an unpublished short story collection, was a finalist for the 2010 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction [7] and won honorable mention in the 2011 competition for the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction.[8] Surface Tension was also the winner of the Imaginative Writing Award (Betty Gabehart Fiction Prize) from the Kentucky Women Writers Conference in March 2005. McMahan was awarded the distinction of Literary Artist of the Year (2013) by Jasper Magazine, an arts publication in South Carolina.

McMahan's novella Decorations was included in the collection Snow Angels which was a Book of the Month Club selection and appeared in the New York Times, USA Today. and Publisher's Weekly bestseller lists.[8] Her novel Calling Home was selected as "Need to Read" by Target Corporation,[9] and The Ocean Inside was nominated for book of the year by the Southern Independent Booksellers Association.[10] Sojourner Magazine reviewer, Bobbi Buchanan, praised McMahan's new novel Anonymity: "Intriguing and believable characters are part of what makes Janna McMahan's novel Anonymity a memorable read".[11] The novel was nominated for the Kentucky Literary Award sponsored by Western Kentucky University and the Southern Kentucky Book Festival. Kentucky novelist, Silas House, wrote of McMahan's work, "Janna McMahan is a natural voice who gracefully walks that tightrope of being both literary and commercial."

Personal life

McMahan currently lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.[12]

Bibliography
Novels
  • Anonymity 2012, Kohler Books
  • The Ocean Inside 2009, Kensington Books
  • Calling Home 2008, Kensington Books
  • Undertow 2001, Writers Bloc Press
Novellas
  • "Snow Angels" 2009, Kensington Books
Selected Short Stories
  • "Scab" 2016, Still: The Journal
  • "The Curator" 2014, Found Anew, anthology, University of South Carolina Press
  • "Candy Cigarettes" 2008, Yamassee Literary Journal, University of South Carolina Department of English
  • "What's Left Standing" 2006, Wind Literary Journal
  • "Intruder" 2006, StorySouth Online Literary Journal
  • "Rolling Boil" 2006, Alimentum, the Literature of Food, anthology
  • "Seeing Things" 2005, The Natahala Literary Journal
  • "Pluff Mud" 2004, winner of the Colossal Short Story Contest, Free Times Magazine
  • "Dry Land Fish" 2002, Limestone Literary Journal, University of Kentucky
  • "See Money" 2002, Winner of the Piccolo Spoleto Fiction Open
  • "Up the Creek" 2000, The Midday Moon Literary Journal
  • "The Snag" 1998, Winner of the South Carolina Fiction Project, Charleston Post & Courier
Selected Creative Non-fiction
  • "End Note: Southern Swing" July/August 2019, Walter Magazine
  • "Make Your Encore Wedding Personal" 2019, Southern Bride & Groom
  • "Painted Lady" 2017, O. Henry Magazine
  • "Writer in Residence" 2016, Charleston Magazine
  • "The Long Lake View" 2015, State of the Heart, anthology, University of South Carolina Press
  • "Pat Conroy: Or How I stalked My Prince of Tides" 2013, The Limelight, literary anthology, Muddy Ford Press
  • "A Name You Can Yell" 2012, Literary Dogs, anthology, Hub City Press
  • "Batteries Not Included" 2010, The New Southerner Literary Journal
  • "The Worst Bad Neighbor" 2009, We All Live Downstream, anthology, Motes Books
  • "Book Tour Boot Camp" 2008, Travelingmom.com
  • "A Strong Sense of Place," 2008, AGoodBlogIsHardToFind.com
  • "Happy Camper" 2007, MusingMom.com
  • "Sugar Babies" 2003, Cure Magazine
  • "Confessions of a Bag Lady" 2002, Skirt! Magazine

References
  1. "The South Carolina Arts Commission | Fiction Project". Southcarolinaarts.com. 2012-10-01. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  2. "Charleston SC, News, Sports, Entertainment". The Post and Courier. 2013-05-16. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  3. "South Carolina Fiction Project". South Carolina Arts Commission. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
  4. The State June 2, 2002 p.E14
  5. Free-Times, Columbia, SC July 2004
  6. "Columbia SC News, Events, Restaurants and Classifieds". Free-times.com. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  7. "News from the University of Georgia Press: Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award winners announced". Ugapress.blogspot.com. 2010-08-05. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  8. "Contests & Submissions « Sarabande Books". Web.archive.org. 2012-02-08. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  9. "Authors |". SC Book Festival. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  10. "2010 SIBA Book Award Long List Announced". Sibaweb.com. 2012-10-26. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  11. Buchanan, Bobbi. "Children of the Street - Bobbi Buchanan | Sojourners Magazine - July 2013". Sojo.net. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  12. "Janna McMahan's 'the ocean inside'". Charleston Treasures. October 5, 2011. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
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