<p>Who are the country’s “Best New American Voices”? Look no farther than FSU’s creative writing students, represented this year by Ph.D. student Caimeen Garrett. Each year, just a handful of aspiring “new voices”-students from prestigious programs across North America-are selected for Best New American Voices-the premier annual anthology of contemporary fiction. Making that coveted final cut just once has launched careers. Garrett has made it twice. [COLOR=“Blue”]And no institution in the world has made it more often than FSU.
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Consistently ranked as one of the nation’s best, the graduate program in creative writing at FSU is home to winners of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award and features a celebrated faculty known not just as writers, but also as teachers of writing. Their students are winners as well. With Garrett’s encore, five from FSU have won Best New American Voices inclusion through the years for a cumulative total of eight times. No other program has bested that dazzling performance.</p>
<p>Garrett’s return to “New Voices” will feature her tale of “The Temperate Family”- picked by bestselling novelist Sue Miller—which will appear in the 2007 anthology. She made her first appearance in 2003 following selection of her short story “Circuits.” Winning stories are selected by a distinguished cadre of established authors.</p>
<p>“‘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 James Kimbrell, FSU Creative Writing Program director. “In that case, the prognosis for Caimeen Garrett is very, very good. Her second ‘New Voices’ appearance is an exceptional achievement indeed.”</p>
<p>Set in 1876, “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. It is told through letters written by the boy’s father.</p>
<p>As it happens, Garrett began work on her story just as Elizabeth Smart was found.</p>
<p>In addition to her work on two award-winning stories and a doctoral degree, Garrett has been a creative writing teaching assistant at FSU since 2000. Raised in Pennsylvania, she received a bachelor’s degree from La Salle University in Philadelphia and her master’s from Syracuse University.</p>
<p>“Given how difficult it is to get into the anthology just once and the degree of chance involved, I’m thrilled to be appearing in ‘Best New American Voices’ again,” Garrett said. “In some respects I appreciate it more the second time around and feel doubly grateful to FSU’s world-class creative writing program for helping me get there.” </p>
<p>See: <a href=“Florida State University”>Florida State University;