Jessica Guerrieri (B.A., English, ’07) is this year’s winner of the Maurice Prize for Fiction. The prize, which includes a $10,000 award, is given to a UC Davis graduate who has not yet published a novel.
Guerrieri wrote the novel she submitted, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, during the COVID pandemic lockdown. The book chronicles the highs and lows of a large family living in Half Moon Bay, California. It is about coming to terms with family, addiction, recovery, children and, not the least, motherhood.
Submissions are being accepted for the 2023 Maurice Prize for Fiction, a $10,000 award for the best novel written by a UC Davis graduate who has not yet published or been accepted for publication by the contest deadline. Submissions are limited to novels; no short story collections.
Kirk Colvin spent a year as U.S. Coast Guard attaché to the American Embassy during the final months of the brutal Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier regime in the 1980s. His time there informed his novel Bloodless Coup, winner of the Maurice Prize for Fiction. The $10,000 prize is awarded to UC Davis alumni and was established in 2005 by bestselling author John Lescroart in honor of his father.
The UC Davis Creative Writing Series for the spring will be part of an art installation at a performing arts center, include a celebration and discussion in Woodland of a new book by a Mexican poet, and feature a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry winner. The Creative Writing Program is part of the Department of English.
Art and Words from Ashwini Bhat and Forrest Gander
April 15 and 28, 7:30 p.m.
