Soma Mei Sheng Frazier

Fiction Writer

Website:

Author's Bio

Soma Mei Sheng Frazier is an East Coast Native living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her debut fiction collection, Collateral Damage: A Triptych, was RopeWalk Press Editor’s Fiction Chapbook Prize winner and earned praise from Nikki Giovanni, Daniel "Lemony Snicket" Handler, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Antonya Nelson, Molly Giles and others. New work is forthcoming in Glimmer Train and Zyzzyva in 2015/2016. You can read her work online at Eclectica Magazine, Carve Magazine, Eleven Eleven and Kore Press - or check out her SF Weekly interview or upcoming appearance schedule at http://somafrazier.com.

Soma is Assistant Professor and Chair of English and the Humanities at Cogswell Polytechnical College. Prior to that, she held the dual role of Literary Arts Chair and Director of Institutional Advancement at Oakland School for the Arts. Soma has also taught at the Sarah Lawrence College Summer High School Writers Program, Holy Names University, Gavilan College and Valhalla Women’s Correctional Facility – and worked at KQED, the Bay Area’s public media source. She possesses a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College, and a Bachelor’s degree in Asian Studies from Pomona College.

Soma is completing a novel and screenplay.

Publications & Prizes

Book:

Collateral Damage: A Triptych (RopeWalk Press, 2013)

Journals:

Mississippi Review

Southern Indiana Review

Prizes won:

• "Collateral Damage: A Triptych"
This fiction collection earned praise from Nikki Giovanni, Daniel Handler (AKA Lemony Snicket), Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Antonya Nelson and Molly Giles. Proceeds from book sales support First Place for Youth, a nonprofit providing intensive services to foster youth at the critical junction when they "age out" of the system.
• “Everyone is Waiting”
This short story won first place in Glimmer Train’s October 2012 Family Matters literary competition. It will appear in Glimmer Train Issue 90 / Issue 91 (spring 2014).
• “Charlie Golf, Charlie Golf One”
This piece earned third place in Glimmer Train’s March 2013 Fiction Open competition. It is the title story of a collection that agents are reading now.
• “Tomato”
This short story earned Top 25 status in Glimmer Train’s December 2012 Fiction Open.
• “Antique”
This short story – a finalist in the 2010 Asian American Short Story Contest, hosted by Hyphen magazine and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and judged by Alexander Chee and Jaed Coffin – first appeared in Eleven Eleven #14.
• “Kitchen Math”
This short story was a Finalist in Carve Magazine’s 2012 Raymond Carver Short Story competition, and won an Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train’s June 2012 Fiction Open.
• “Shita e Mairimasu”
This story earned Top 25 status in Glimmer Train’s July 2012 Very Short Fiction Award.
• Terminal
This collection won the 2012 Ropewalk Press Fiction Chapbook Editor’s Prize, 2nd place.
• “The Deepest Hours”
This poem, a finalist in The Knightville Poetry Contest, appeared in The New Guard 2011.
• “She Must Remember”
This short story, a Top Ten selection in the 2011 Zoetrope: All-Story short story contest and a semi-finalist in the Machigonne Fiction Contest, appeared in The New Guard 2011.
• Zero Pressure
This fiction collection was a finalist in the 2011 RopeWalk Press Editor’s Prize contest.
• Photographs of Earth
This poetry collection was a semi-finalist in the 10th Annual Slope Editions Book Prize contest.
• “Not Going to Come Out Clean”
This short-short was selected as one of the Top 25 in the Glimmer Train Press January 2011 Very Short Fiction contest.
• “Hands”
This story earned an Hon. Mention in Glimmer Train’s Oct. 2011 Family Matters contest.
• Face: Six Stories
This collection— a finalist in the RopeWalk Press Thomas A. Wilhelmus Fiction Chapbook Prize contest—was singled out for special mention by Robert Olen Butler.
• Inaudible Song
This book-length manuscript was chosen as a semi-finalist in Black Lawrence Press’s 2011 Hudson Prize contest.
• “Cormorants”
This poem was a finalist in the 2010 Pinch Literary Awards in Fiction and Poetry contest, judged by Beth Ann Fennelly.
• “Comedy”
This poem earned an Honorable Mention from world-renowned poet Nikki Giovanni, and was published in the 2010-11 issue of New Millennium Writings.
• “Telling Her” and “Piñata”
These poems were selected as Finalists in the 9th Annual Mudfish Poetry Prize contest and published in Mudfish 16. “Piñata” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and will also appear in Kore Press’s “Best of 2012” collection, to be released in 2013.
• “Zero Pressure”
This story was selected as Third Place Winner in Carve Magazine’s 2009 Raymond Carver Prize contest, and published in the 2009 summer issue of Carve Magazine. Named a Notable Story of 2009 by storySouth, it will be included in the Carve 2009-2010 Anthology.
• “Inaudible Song”
This story was selected by celebrated author Frederick Barthelme as a Finalist in the Mississippi Review 2009 Prize contest, and published in MR Prize 2009. It was also a Finalist in the Glimmer Train Press Short-Story Award For New Writers contest.
• “Ai-guo”
This story was selected by acclaimed author Lee K. Abbott as a finalist in The Journal’s 6th Annual Short Story Contest. It appeared in Reed Magazine, #63.
• “The Projects”
This short-short was selected as one of the Top 25 in the Glimmer Train Press January 2010 Very Short Fiction contest.
• “Photographs of Earth”
This poem was selected as a Finalist in The Comstock Review’s annual poetry contest and published in Volume 18, #2.

More Information

Gives readings:

Yes

Travels for readings:

Yes

Identifies as:

Mixed-Race

Prefers to work with:

Any

Fluent in:

English

Born in:

Tucson

Raised in:

Lebanon, NH

New Hampshire

Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.

Last update: Mar 28, 2016