21st Century Award for Nami Mun

October 19, 2012


Nami Mun, a faculty member in the Columbia College Chicago Fiction Writing department, received the 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation at a ceremony on October 17.

The 21st Century Award honors significant recent achievement in writing by a Chicago-based author. In presenting this award, the Foundation's Directors hope to encourage the creation of new works and increase public awareness of the writer's talents.

In an Oct. 12 Chicago Tribune article, Mun said her students at Columbia College teach her to take risks. “When they are in my classroom, I make a conscious decision to help them continue to be unafraid in their writing.”

Mun grew up in Seoul, South Korea and Bronx, New York. Her debut novel, “Miles from Nowhere,” received a Whiting Award and a Pushcart Prize, and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers and the Asian American Literary Award. “Miles From Nowhere” was also elected as Editors’ Choice and Top Ten First Novels by Booklist; Best Fiction of 2009 So Far by Amazon; and as an Indie Next Pick. Chicago Magazine named her Best New Novelist of 2009.

Munn has a Bachelor of Arts in English from UC Berkeley, a Master of Fine Arts from University of Michigan, and has garnered fellowships from organizations such as Yaddo, MacDowell, Bread Loaf, and Tin House. In 2011 she became a US Delegate for a China/America Writers Exchange in Beijing and Chicago. Her stories have been published in Granta, Tin House, The Iowa Review, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, Evergreen Review, Witness, and elsewhere.