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For the second time, FSU writer Caimeen Garrett earns coveted slot in "Best New American Voices" anthology
BY LIBBY FAIRHURST
Florida State University creative writing graduate student Caimeen Garrett belongs to an exclusive club. Its members comprise a select fraction of the nation's most promising young authors: those who've had a short story published in "Best New American Voices," the premier annual anthology of contemporary fiction culled from top U.S. and Canadian writing programs.
Each year, an illustrious cadre of established authors choose roughly 15 "Best New American Voices," and making that cut just once can launch a future literary star's career. Now, Garrett has made it twice.
Novelist Sue Miller has picked Garrett's "The Temperate Family" for the 2007 anthology, due out next fall. The FSU teaching assistant made her first "New Voices" appearance after Joyce Carol Oates selected her short story "Circuits" for the 2003 edition.
With Garrett tapped for a 2007 encore, FSU's Creative Writing Program remains "Best New American Voices" most oft-included program since the influential tome's debut in 2000.
"'Publishers Weekly' has said that 'if this anthology of up-and-coming writers is any indication, the prognosis for the written word is very good,'" said FSU's Creative Writing Program Director James Kimbrell.
"In that case, the prognosis for Caimeen Garrett is very, very good," he said. "Her second 'New Voices' appearance is a rare accomplishment indeed."
"The Temperate Family" is a work of historical fiction inspired by the true story of Charley Ross, considered the nation's first child kidnapped for ransom. Set in 1876, it is told through letters written by the boy's father.
"I'm currently working on a collection of stories inspired by the Lindbergh kidnapping, which is how I discovered the Ross case. It was the archetypal kidnapping in the American imagination until the Lindbergh kidnapping nearly 60 years later," Garrett said. "This particular case set the pattern, and served as a powerful, cautionary lesson for all parents who would follow in father Christian Ross's footprints.
"I was just starting work on this story when Elizabeth Smart was found," she continued.
"I was struck by the fact that a child in this day and age could be hidden, almost in plain sight, for nine months. It underscored for me just how difficult Christian Ross' search was, communicating by letter or telegraph, traveling by train or horse-drawn carriage. In fact, the Ross family only had one poor photograph of their son, which was two years old. An artist, using the photo and family input, created an updated portrait that was a sort of precursor to the computer 'age progression' done today."
At FSU since 2000, Garrett expects to earn her Ph.D. in creative writing this spring. Raised in Pennsylvania, she received her bachelor's degree from La Salle University in Philadelphia and her master's from Syracuse University.
"It is thrilling to be in 'New Voices' again, and in some respects I appreciate it more the second time," Garrett said. "I'm more aware of how difficult it is to get into the anthology. Beyond just a good story there's a certain amount of chance and luck involved."
FSU's top-ranked Creative Writing Program is home to Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winners and the author of the world's most-adopted creative writing text.
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