Assistant Professor Tom Paine has been asked to serve as an editor on the board of the Pushcart Prize. The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, or essays" published in the small presses over the previous year. Along with the Best American Short Stories and the O. Henry Award, it is one of the most prestigious award anthologies for short fiction in the country.
Former editors include Anaïs Nin, Buckminster Fuller, Daniel Halpern, Gordon Lish, Ishmael Reed, Joyce Carol Oates, Paul Bowles, Ralph Ellison, and Reynolds Price.
Among the writers who received early recognition in Pushcart Prize anthologies are Kathy Acker, Steven Barthelme, Rick Bass, Charles Baxter, Raymond Carver, Junot Diaz, Andre Dubus, William H. Gass, Paul Muldoon, Joyce Carol Oates, Tim O'Brien, Peter Orner, Kay Ryan, Mona Simpson, and Wells Tower.
