Bret Lott (born October 8, 1958) is the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' author and professor of English at the
College of Charleston
The College of Charleston (CofC or Charleston) is a public university in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1770 and chartered in 1785, it is the oldest university in South Carolina, the 13th oldest institution of higher learning in the Unit ...
.
He is ''
Crazyhorse'' magazine's nonfiction editor and leads a study abroad program every summer to
Spoleto, Italy
Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome.
History
Spoleto ...
.
Lott was appointed to the
National Council of the Arts by
President George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
and served a six-year term. He was a
Fulbright
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
Senior American Scholar in 2006 and writer-in-residence at
Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic i ...
in
Tel Aviv, Israel
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
. He was invited by Laura Bush to speak at the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
as part of the White House Symposium on “Classic American Stories” in 2004.
Personal life
Born in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
in 1958, Lott grew up in
Buena Park, California
Buena Park (''Buena'', Spanish for "Good") is a city in Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census its population was 84,034. It is the location of several tourist attractions, namely Knott's Berry Farm. It is about 12 mi ...
and
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
, before returning to California to live in
Huntington Beach
Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 during the 2020 census, maki ...
. He met and married his wife of 40 years, Melanie Swank Lott, at First Baptist Church of Huntington Beach/Fountain Valley. A graduate of
Cal State Long Beach (1981), Lott headed to Massachusetts for graduate school at
UMass Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...
. He received his MFA in 1984 and landed his first teaching position at
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
. In 1986, Lott joined the English Department at the College of Charleston, where he is now a tenured professor and director of the new MFA program.
Awards and Distinctions
* Recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Aid to Artists Fellowship in Literature for 1986–1987
* Recipient of the South Carolina Arts Commission Fellowship in Literature for 1987–1988
* Winner, PEN/NEA Syndicated Fiction Project Award, 1985, 1991, 1993
* Bread Loaf Fellow in Fiction, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, 1991
* Distinguished Research Award, College of Charleston, 1995
* Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1999
* Chancellor’s Medal, University of Massachusetts, 2000
* In Praise of Teaching Award, College of Charleston, January 2002
* Recipient, The Avalon Award for Excellence in the Arts, Lipscomb University, October 10, 2005
* Recipient, The Leila Lenore Heasley Prize for a Distinguished Representative of American and International Letters, Lyon College, 21 March 2006
* Recipient, The Denise Levertov Award, Seattle Pacific University, 8 May 2007
* Recipient, Fulbright Senior Scholar appointment as writer-in-residence, Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv, Israel, October 2006 through January 2007
* National Council on the Arts: Member, 2006—2012
* Appointed the Ferrol A. Sams, Jr., Distinguished Chair in English, Mercer University, 2012
Books
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*, an Oprah's Book Club selection made into a film
Jewel (2001)
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lott, Bret
1958 births
Living people
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American magazine editors
American male novelists
College of Charleston faculty
Louisiana State University faculty
Writers from Charleston, South Carolina
Writers from Los Angeles
Novelists from Louisiana
American male short story writers
20th-century American short story writers
21st-century American short story writers
People from Buena Park, California
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
Novelists from California
Novelists from South Carolina
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American male non-fiction writers