Wells’ first book, Compression Scars, was written in 2002 and won the Flannery O’Conner Award for Short Fiction. The award was made to encourage gifted emerging authors by bringing their work to a national readership. The award is granted during an annual competition that brings hundreds of manuscripts.
While winning the award was an achievement in itself, Wells said it was especially pleasant to win an award from an author that she loves.
“It was an especially gratifying way to get that first book into the world, with her (ghostly) imprimatur on it,” Wells said. “Also, at the time, I was living in Milledgeville, Georgia where Flannery O’Connor lived, teaching at Georgia College, where she attended school. This improbable coincidence squares with my experience of the strange whimsy of the universe.”
When Wells was at WMU, the doctoral program in creative writing was relatively new, so it was brimming with excitement and enthusiasm. Wells said that what drew her to the program was having the opportunity of being mentored by Jaimy Gordon, a fiction writer whom Wells has long admired.
“I had such a wonderful experience at WMU,” Wells said. “My teachers and fellow writers were stellar.”
Wells says that the usual things inspire her writing, such as literature, music, and art. She says things like the lives of animals, myth-making, human struggle, her dogs, and junk science are also a source of influence. Wells says that she’s interested in what lures people away from the center, toward any fringe.
When she isn’t writing, Wells enjoys the company of her dogs, drawing and painting comics, and illustrations. She has recently finished a second collection of stories, called God, the Moon, and Other Megafauna.
To learn more about Kellie and her work, please visit her website at kelliewells.com.
Posted by Stan Sulewski