This week, Eugene Lim (Search History, Dear Cyborgs) was named the winner of the 44th John Dos Passos Prize, given every year by Longwood University “to a talented American writer who experiments with form, explores a range of voices and merits further recognition.” He was selected from a shortlist of five announced back in October.
“Eugene Lim’s work is completely unique in its formal innovations and its elegant yet accessible prose,” said Dr. David Magill, professor of literatures of diversity and chair of the Department of English and Modern Languages at Longwood, in a statement. “Lim manages to pack so much into every page, taking us on a wild journey of adventure with each sentence. He is breathtakingly original and a writer not to be missed.”
“Eugene Lim explores deeply emotional situations and themes in an entirely heady, novel way,” added Rone Shavers, associate professor of English at the University of Utah, who served on the jury. “There’s an impressive, subtle interconnectivity to his books and subjects that, like some kind of literary earworm, will have you thinking about them long after you finish. And on a sentence-by-sentence level, the writing is simply gorgeous.”
Lim, will receive an honorarium and medal, and visit Longwood’s campus for a public event in the spring.
