Assistant Professor of English, Linguistics and Communications Jon Pineda will be featured on the radio program With Good Reason September 10-16.
Titled “Pulitzer100: The Wondrous Junot Díaz,” the program takes a look at the works of several poets and authors. Pineda will address his latest memoir, Sleep in Me, which chronicles his sister Rica’s sudden transformation from a vibrant high school cheerleader to a girl wheelchair bound and unable to talk.
The author of four books over the past seven years, Pineda’s novel Apology won the 2013 Milkweed National Fiction Prize and received a starred review from Library Journal. His memoir Sleep In Me was a 2010 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, was named a “Best Books of 2010” selection by Library Journal and is being translated into Chinese.
In addition to books, Pineda has authored an award-winning poetry collection, including Little Anodynes, a Palmetto Poetry Series of personal narratives; The Translator’s Diary, winner of the 2007 Green Rose Prize in Poetry from New Issues; and Birthmark, winner of the 2003 Crab Orchard Award Series in Poetry Open Competition. Pineda also was named a 2016 finalist for the Virginia Literary Award for Little Anodynes.
Pineda is recipient of the 2016 UMW Alumni Association Outstanding Young Faculty Member Award, which is presented annually to an exceptional member of the faculty who has served the institution for at least two years but no more than five years. He also is recipient of a Virginia Commission for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship and has twice served on faculty for the Kundiman Asian American Poets’ Retreat, held at Fordham University. Pineda has a master’s of fine arts from Virginia Commonwealth University and a bachelor’s degree from James Madison University.
With Good Reason is a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. The show airs weekly in Fredericksburg on Sundays from 1-2 p.m. on Radio IQ 88.3 Digital. To listen from outside the Fredericksburg area, a complete list of air times and links to corresponding radio stations can be found at http://www.withgoodreasonradio.org/when-to-listen/.
