Julia Elliott, professor of women’s and gender studies and of English at the University of South Carolina, received the 2026 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction for her new short story collection Hellions (Tin House, 2025). The $150,000 prize celebrates the best works of fiction written by women and nonbinary writers in Canada and the United States.
In Hellions, Dr. Elliott’s stories blend themes from folklore, fairy tales, Southern Gothic, and horror. The award-winning collection is Dr. Elliott’s third book. Her previous publications include the short story collection The Wilds (Tin House, 2014) and the novel The New and Improved Romie Futch (Tin House, 2015).
As a professor, Dr. Elliott teaches courses in creative writing, contemporary fiction, occult surrealism, monster theory, gender, and monstrosity in horror films. An alumna of the University of South Carolina, Dr. Elliott holds a master of fine arts degree from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.
Min Kyung Lee, associate professor of growth and structure of cities at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, received the 2026 Spiro Kostof Book Award from the Society of Architectural Historians for her book The Tyranny of the Straight Line: Mapping Modern Paris (Yale University Press, 2024). The award honors interdisciplinary studies of urban history that make the greatest contribution to the understanding of the growth and development of cities.
Dr. Lee’s award-winning book examines mapping practices in the development of nineteenth-century Paris and the transformative role urban mapping had on the city’s modernization. The monograph includes insights from histories and theories of orthography, mensuration, quantification, bureaucracy, cartography, and urban design.
Currently, Dr. Lee’s research centers on the migration histories of the built environment, specifically the spaces and sites of the Korean diaspora during the post-war period through the global circulation of export products. In addition to her appointment at Bryn Mar, Dr. Lee is a research affiliate with The Courtland Institute in London. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Anne E. Marshall, executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library at Mississippi State university, received a Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for her book Cassius Marcellus Clay: The Life of an Antislavery Slaveholder and the Paradox of American Reform (University of North Carolina Press, 2025).
Dr. Marshall’s new biography examines the life of the nineteenth-century Kentucky antislavery reformer Cassius Marcellus Clay, who like some other White Americans of his time, disliked slavery in principle but remained comfortable accommodating it. Through her analysis of Clay’s life, Dr. Marshall explores this contradiction at the heart of American reform and antislavery politics.
A professor in Mississippi State’s department of history. Dr. Marshall is a scholar of the U.S. South, women’s history, nineteenth- and twentieth-century U.S. history, and the American Civil War and Reconstruction. She joined the Mississippi State faculty in 2006 following a stint as an assistant professor of history at Franklin College in Indiana. Dr. Marshall holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Centre College of Kentucky and both a master’s degree and Ph.D. in history from the University of Georgia.