The New York Observer reports that Deborah Eisenberg, who counts among her recent accomplishments a PEN/Faulkner Award and a MacArthur "Genius" Grant, is leaving UVA to teach at Columbia University. Eisenberg has taught writing at UVA since 1994.
Like UVA’s, Columbia University’s writing faculty is one of the country’s most illustrious. Columbia’s faculty ranges from Philip Lopate to Orhan Pamuk and Gary Shteyngart. Eisenberg’s short story collections were released in a single volume, The Collected Short Stories of Deborah Eisenberg, last year.
Last year UVA’s writing department lost another of its crown jewels: the Pulitzer-winning poet Charles Wright retired from teaching in May 2010.
In a recent C Magazine feature, a writer described Eisenberg’s style: "Stylish and carrying just the slightest hint of self-deprecation, she professes to love teaching and walking through crowded city streets on warm days. She favors high heels and cuts a strikingly urbane figure wherever she goes."
