MFA Alum Nick Robinson Recognized in Best American Essays 2022

Many congratulations to MFA alum Nick Robinson ('09) on continued recognition for his essay, "Junior Village," published in Southeast Review 39.1!

Robinson's work earned recognition as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2022 and was also Winner of the 2020 Ned Stuckey-French Nonfiction Contest.

Shortly after my arrival from a failed Foster-Care stint at Miss Smith’s, I’d met Leon at the single-story rectangle, Garfield Cottage: Junior Village’s former Infant-Cottage-turned-Recreation-Center. Kids swarmed the long narrow space like mice: crowding the two frenzied Ping-Pong tables, sitting sprawled on the scatter of foldout chairs, waiting their turn to play. A boy decked out in a do-rag and I, two stalk-thin bantamweights, were on opposite ends of one of the grasshopper-green tables, swinging our paddles with abandon. On handily winning the match, Do-rag flung his thin, sweaty arm around me and, though we had not officially met, buddy-hugged me to the curbstone outside. [ . . . ]

Robinson graduated from FAU with his MFA in Creative Writing in 2009. He is an Associate Professor of English at Claflin University. You can read more about his work at his faculty page and read his essay at Southeast Review.