Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03)Wins College Alumni Award

[Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) has won the Carthage College Alumni Award, called the Beacon, which will be presented on May 3, 2013 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Established in 1847, Carthage is a four-year private college of the liberal arts and sciences, affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church. The college is located on an 80-acre arboretum on the shore of Lake Michigan, half way between Chicago and Milwaukee.

The Award is given to those alumni “who provide light to their communities, honoring the recipient for one specific accomplishment, act of service, professional or personal achievement, event, or program.”

Tony was honored, not for his Peace Corps, but for his writings. The release on the college web side reads:]

Anthony D’Souza ’95
Sarasota, Florida

Anthony’s third novel, “Mule,” was released in September 2011 to advance praise from “Vanity Fair,” “Gawker,” “Kirkus,” “Booklist,” and “Library Journal.”Anthony was was an English major, a member of Tau Sigma Phi social fraternity,   production editor at “The Current,” and served on student council. He won the Chapin-Tague and Centrique awards for writing while at Carthage. He went on to earn master’s degrees in writing from Hollins University and the University of Notre Dame, then served three years in the Peace Corps in Ivory Coast and Madagascar. While in Ivory Coast, he saw the outbreak of the Ivorian Civil War, experiences he turned into his first novel, “Whiteman,” which won or was a finalist for nearly every first novel prize offered in the U.S., including the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

He has written two more novels, the most recent of which, “Mule,” was optioned for film by Warner Bros. for director Todd Phillips (“The Hangover”), with a script recently written by Mark and Jay Duplass (“Cyrus”). He’s also a freelance journalist and has contributed to leading magazines including the “New Yorker,” “Esquire,” “Playboy,” “Outside,” “Mother Jones,” and appeared widely on TV and radio including the “Today Show,” “Dateline,” NPR and the BBC. Among his recognitions are a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts grants, an O. Henry prize, two Florida book medals, and awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Florida Magazine Association, and the California Newspaper Publishers Association. Last year, a major story he wrote with Tom Finkel, editor of the “Village Voice,” won the National Association of Black Journalists prize for Investigative Reporting. Tony lives in Sarasota, Fla., with his two young children and teaches in the graduate writing program at the University of Tampa. He speaks at universities around the country, allowing him one of his greatest pleasures: visiting with his Carthage frat brothers from Tau Sigma Phi.