Montana Tech assistant professor awarded prestigious fellowship

Montana Technological University Assistant Professor of Literature Matthew Haynes has been awarded a residency by the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) at Moulin à Nef in Auvillar, France.  The VCCA was founded in 1971 by Virginia writers Nancy Hale and Elizabeth Coles Langhorn. 

To be eligible for the residency, Haynes was first awarded a 50th anniversary writing fellowship at the VCCA’s Mt. St. Angelo campus in 2023.  

Each year, approximately 400 visual artists, writers, and composers participate in residences at the VCCA’s campuses in the Blue Ridge Mountains at Mt. St. Angelo and Moulin à Nef in Auvillar, France. This summer Haynes will complete his residency at Moulin à Nef.  

Fellows live at the Maison Vieilhescaze in one of four apartments, and work in the studio building, La Cebo, which was converted from a 17th century house located next to the Fellows’ residence.  

Haynes holds an M.A. in Fiction Writing and M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Boise State University. He is the author of the novel “Friday.” Recently, his short stories have appeared in West Branch, The Normal School, The Los Angeles Review, and The Florida Review. 

He has been a finalist for the Faulkner Award in Fiction, Writers’ Digest Award in Nonfiction (and honorable mention), Glimmer Train Short Short Story Award (and honorable mention), Tennessee Williams Award in Fiction (and runner-up), Tobias Wolff Short Story Award, The Florida Review Editor's Choice Award in Fiction (and runner-up), and the ScreenCraft Cinematic Story Award (and runner-up).    

He also was an Idaho Fiction Fellow in 2010, an Idaho State Library Traveling Scholar from 2011-13, and a Lambda Literary Fiction Fellow in 2017 and Fiction Resident in 2018. 

Haynes was awarded this time in France to complete his new novel, “A Volley of Barks.”