Robin Black, who has taught Advanced Fiction Writing at Arcadia, received Philadelphia’s coveted Athenaeum Literary Award for her short-story collection If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This, as reported by Philly.com. The prize recognizes and encourages literary achievement among authors who are “bona fide residents of Philadelphia or Pennsylvania living within a radius of 30 miles of City Hall” at the time their book was written or published.

In February, Black participated in Arcadia’s Visiting Writers Series, giving 10 students the opportunity to workshop with her. A public reading followed, in which Black also gave a talk, “It’s Not Us, It’s Monkeys: Some Thoughts on Disguising the Truth.” In addition to this latest award, If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This was a finalist for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize,

a San Francisco Chronicle and Irish Times Best Book of 2010, and was featured on O, the Oprah Magazine and Huffington Post Summer Reading lists. The book has been published or is forthcoming in six countries overseas. Her nonfiction essays also have received widespread acclaim. Black holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.F.A. from Warren Wilson College. She currently is working on her first novel.