GALESBURG -- Robert McClure Smith, associate professor of English at Knox College in Galesburg, has won the 2004 Scotsman and Orange Short Story Award, the largest and richest competition of its kind in Great Britain.

A native of Scotland who has taught at Knox since 1996, Smith was presented the award at a ceremony on June 1 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He received a first-place prize of £7,500, the equivalent of approximately $14,000, and his story, "Masonry," has been included with other winning stories in a collection, "North," published by Paragon.

This was the first year for the competition that will be held annually, sponsored by The Scotsman newspaper and by Orange, a communications services company in Scotland. The competition is open to authors who live or were born in Scotland. Smith was born in Airdrie, in central Scotland, and earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. He completed his master's and doctoral degrees at the University of Massachusetts.

"The news came as a total surprise to me," Smith told The Scotsman in an interview after the prize was announced. "I'm sure there were other stories in the competition better than my own and which I wish I'd written myself."

Smith's short story is about a fashion model's revenge on her two-timing boyfriend. Author Jackie Kay, who chaired the judges' panel, told The Scotsman that Smith's story is "subtle and intense," and it has "the kind of imagination behind it that enables it to stick in the reader's mind."

Smith, who teaches literature and film at Knox, is the author of a book, "The Seductions of Emily Dickinson," and co-editor of an anthology, "American Culture, Canons and the Case of Elizabeth Stoddard."

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 46 states and 50 nations. Knox's "Old Main" is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.

Robert McClure Smith - http://www.knox.edu/rsmith.xml

News Story on Award - http://news.scotsman.com/archive.cfm?id=625162004

Robert McClure Smith