Erin Flanagan | Photo by Kelsie Tomlinson | The Wright State Guardian
Professor Erin Flanagan’s first four novels went unpublished. Now her novel “Deer Season” has been nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award.
Deer Season and nomination
Professor Erin Flanagan teaches creative writing at Wright State University and balances this with her success as an author of two short collections, one published novel (Deer Season), and one to-be-published novel (Blackout).
“Deer Season” is a mystery novel following a teenage girl’s murder in a small town located in Nebraska and the search for her actual killer suspected to be an intellectually-disabled farmhand in 1985. The novel was nominated for a 2022 Edgar Allan Poe Award for “Best First Novel by an American Author” by the Mystery Writers of America Association. Only four other novelists were nominated in this category.
The prestigious Edgar Allan Poe Award is awarded to the best in the mystery genre judged by volunteers and writers alike. Flanagan was informed of her nomination the day after it had been officially announced.
“My friend texted me. I was taking a nap and I woke up and she said ‘Congratulations on your Edgar nomination!’ And I said what? So I went online. I was like, ‘Oh my god, there's my book,’” Flanagan said.
The winners of the subsections of the Edgar Allan Poe Award will be announced on April 28. Flanagan’s aim was not to win this award but to express themself as a writer.
Background
“I'm most interested in writing accurately and empathetically about the Midwest. And I'm interested in writing about women in feminist issues. And I think my overall philosophy is that people are good, but they screw up a lot,” Flanagan said.
Flanagan has appeared frequently in literary magazines (Southern Review, Missouri Review, etc.) and participated in creative writing fellowships, but got her start in creative writing after originally being a psychology major.
“When I was in undergraduate, I happened to take a creative writing class and be like, ‘Oh, this is a lot of fun’ and it was the first class I can really remember taking where I have a lot of discipline to do the work,” Flanagan said.
Flanagan currently teaches fiction writing courses for undergraduate students and hopes for a return of a novel-writing course she has previously taught.
Flanagan’s next novel, “Blackout,” is currently available for pre-order on her website.
