PAULA WHYMAN

  curiouswriter

Paula Whyman was awarded the 2006 Washington Writing Prize in Short Fiction by the Washington Independent Writers (WIW). The winning story appeared in The Hudson Review and has been selected for inclusion in that journal's 60th anniversary anthology, Writes of Passage: Coming of Age Stories and Memoirs from The Hudson Review (Spring 2008, Ivan R. Dee). The story was made a permanent part of the senior English curriculum at The Young Women’s Leadership School in Harlem, NY, where Ms. Whyman spoke as part of the Writers-in-Schools program. Her short fiction is also forthcoming in Gravity Dancers, an anthology of fiction by Washington, DC-area women, edited by Richard Peabody.

Ms. Whyman is the recipient of a 2008 Individual Artist Award from the MD State Arts Council (MSAC). In 2007, she was awarded a fellowship to the Virginia Center for Creative Arts (VCCA), where she worked on her novel, THE PEOPLE YOU MEET.

Ms. Whyman’s first story was published in the Virgin Fiction award anthology (Rob Weisbach Books/William Morrow, 1998). Her book reviews and travel/nature writing, including an essay on the Galapagos Islands, have been published in Worldview magazine. Her humor writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Bethesda Magazine, and somewhat.org.

Ms. Whyman received the Myra Sklarew Award from American University’s Department of Literature for a master’s thesis (a novel) of “remarkable originality.” Before attending graduate school, she was a book development editor with the American Psychological Association. Her family has lived in the Washington, DC, area for more than 80 years. She currently lives in Maryland with her husband, two children, and two very worried tadpoles.