Photo by Malone & Co.
Mary Helen Stefaniak’s second novel, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia (W. W. Norton), has been awarded a 2011 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction. The Anisfield-Wolf awards “recognize books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures.” Juror Rita Dove described the novel as “a rollicking tale that manages to speak seriously to the tragedy of ignorance and the damage caused by fear.” The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia was also selected by independent booksellers as an Indie-Next “Great Read” in September 2010. Stefaniak’s first novel, The Turk and My Mother, won the 2005 John Gardner Book Award and has been translated into several languages. Her first book, Self Storage and Other Stories, received the Banta Award for Literary Excellence from the Wisconsin Library Association. A native of Milwaukee and graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Stefaniak is currently an Associate Professor of English/Creative Writing at Creighton University in Omaha.