040809_zachlazartrue1334586686108acckfplazar, zach, guggenheim, hodder, Hofstra, creative writing, faculty, authorZachary Lazar – Hofstra Creative Writing Professor, Acclaimed Author, LI Resident – Receives Dual Honors: a Guggenheim Fellowship and Princeton's Hodder Fellowship/Hofstra_Main_Site/Home/News/PressReleases/Archive/040809_zachlazarprpgse1239213429484prpgse1239213429625Press Release Sub TitlePress Release TitleZachary Lazar – Hofstra Creative Writing Professor, Acclaimed Author, LI Resident – Receives Dual Honors: a Guggenheim Fellowship and Princeton's Hodder FellowshipPress Release Date2009/04/08Ginny GreenbergUniversity Relations202 Hofstra Hall(516) 463-6819(516) 463-5146prpgse@hofstra.edu/Hofstra's Department of Englishhttp://www.hofstra.edu/Academics/Colleges/HCLAS/ENGL/index.html/Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY … Zachary Lazar, an adjunct assistant professor of English at Hofstra, has been awarded a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, which supports emerging talents in the arts and sciences. He also received a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, where he is working on a new novel in 2009-2010. 

Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for men and women who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. Established in 1925 by former United States Senator and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim, in memory of their son John Simon Guggenheim, the Foundation seeks to “add to the educational, literary, artistic, and scientific power of this country …”

The Hodder Fellowship was created for artists in the early stages of their careers. In keeping with the bequest of Mary MacKall Gwinn Hodder, it is awarded to individuals during that crucial period when they have demonstrated exceptional promise but have not yet received widespread recognition. Hodder Fellows spend an academic year at Princeton pursuing independent projects.

Professor Lazar, who resides in North Sea, Long Island, teaches a variety of creative writing courses at Hofstra, with specialties in prose writing and fiction writing. He published his first novel, Aaron, Approximately, in 1998.  Sway, his second novel, was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and was named a Best Book of 2008 by Publisher’s Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, and several other newspapers and magazines, as well as being a finalist for the Barnes and Noble Discover Award.  Sway, which uses such iconic real-life figures as the Rolling Stones and the Manson Family to tell the story of the rise and fall of the 1960s counter-culture, has been translated into three languages.

Professor Lazar’s third book, Evening’s Empire, a non-fiction novel, will be published in 2009.  He is also the recipient of the James Michener/Copernicus Society Prize from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has held fellowships at the Fine Arts Center in Provincetown and at Yaddo.

Hofstra University’s English Department and Creative Writing Program offers both undergraduate and graduate students a wealth of opportunities for the study of literature and creative writing. In addition to the undergraduate program in creative writing, the Master of Arts in English and Creative Writing program offers a wide range of workshops and independent study options in poetry, long and short fiction, playwriting and the essay form, and the faculty who teach in the Master of Arts are artists who represent the major literary genres.

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