The Fiction Writing Department of Columbia College Chicago is delighted to announce that Associate Professor Patricia Ann McNair’s short story collection, The Temple of Air, has won another prestigious award. The Chicago Writers Association has honored it with the Second Annual Book of the Year Award for traditionally published fiction, where it was one of three finalists.
 
The Temple of Air was chosen by last year’s winning author, James Finn Garner, author of the New York Times best selling Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. Comparing McNair’s collection of stories about one small town with Sherwood Anderson’s classic Winesburg, Ohio, Garner said the book won him over with its “blunt, unsentimental, touching stories.”
 
The CWA’s Book of the Year Award joins other accolades won by The Temple of Air, including finalist for the Society of Midland Authors Award in Prose and winner of the 2012 Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award in Prose. McNair was also named to New City’s Lit 50 list of “Who Really Books in Chicago” earlier this year.
 
The Chicago Writers Association’s Second Annual Book of the Year Awards were open to books published between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012 by Chicago area authors or CWA members. They will be presented on January 19 at The Book Cellar, 4736-38 N Lincoln Ave, at 7 PM. The event is free and open to the public.
 
Please join us in congratulating Patty on this well-deserved honor.