Winner of the 2021 Writers Short Stories: Joseph Monninger (Burkina Faso)

A Cup of Stars
(Short stories)
Joseph Monninger (Burkina Faso 1975–77)
Wood Heat Press
May 2020
458 pages
$10.99 (paperback), $4.99 (Kindle)

Joe Monninger’s work has appeared in American Heritage, Scientific American, Reader’s Digest, Glamour, The Boston Globe, Sports Illustrated and Ellery Queen, among other publications. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso, from 1975-77. Over his 30 years writing journey through multiple genres in fiction, nonfiction, and young adult novels, Monninger has attracted significant praise: Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Richard Eder, reviewing Monninger’s 1991 novel The Viper Tree, compared him to renowned author Graham Greene; in 2007, NPR’s Bill Littlefield said Monninger’s historical boxing book, Two Ton, deserves a spot among that sport’s classic literature. His young adult novel, Baby, was awarded the 2008 award for best children’s literature from the Peace Corps Writers.  It was also chosen as a top ten book by YALSA, the American Library Association.  The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s’ Books awarded Hippie Chick, a young adult novel, a blue ribbon for a top book of 2008. Finding Somewhere, his third young adult novel, was selected as a top book of 2011 by Kirkus Reviews.

He is a Professor of English at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire where he lives in a converted barn near the Baker River.He has been a licensed New Hampshire Fishing Guide and has fly-fished from New Zealand to Wyoming’s Wind River Range. For several years his family competed in the New England Sled Dog sprint races and ran a small sled dog business in New Hampshire’s White Mountains