top of page
cabinet.jpg

Stephanie Elsa Dupal

Stephanie Dupal originally hails from Montreal, Canada, by way of the coastal town of Rimouski, in northern Quebec. At age fifteen, she left home to live in Utah with one of her four sisters, and at twenty-one she left the continent for Italy. She speaks French, English, and Italian fluently. 

 

She teaches college composition and literature as a professor of English in Virginia, where she lives with her husband, five children, and too many animals. They hope to add chickens and bees to their menagerie, and Stephanie dreams of spending her days writing and learning obscure crafts like paper quilling and lace tatting. She conducts fruitless searches for the perfect Irish brown bread recipe while wishing she were writing from a quaint cottage on the coast of Dingle, Cornwall, or Brittany.  

 

Her writing most recently appeared in Muddy Backroads, edited by Bonnie Jo Campbell and Luanne Smith, Fiction International, Little Patuxent Review, GRIFFEL (Norway), Storgy Magazine (UK), The Stonecoast Review, Eastern Iowa ReviewThe Northern Virginia Review, Maryland Literary Review, and Broad River Review, among others. She is the recipient of the 2018 Best Prose Award from TNVR and she was named a finalist for the 2019 Ron Rash Award in Fiction, for the 2019 Sonora Review Essay Contest, and for the 2019 New Letters Publication Award in Fiction. Two of her stories were nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

 

She has written two long works: a short story collection, Field Notes from the Society for Goodwilled Rebellion, and a novel, At Ease Are the Sleepers, which she hopes to see in print soon. She completed an MFA in fiction from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

​

Previous versions of her short story collection Field Notes from the Society for Goodwilled Rebellion (as The Kindness of Terrible People) were named a finalist for the George Garrett Fiction Prize and the C&R Press Fiction Award and longlisted for the Unleash Press Book Award.

​

An avid reader, Stephanie counts the following authors among her favorites: Robert and Richard Bausch, Wilkie Collins, Maryse Conde, France Daigle, Patricia Eakins, Emily Fridlund, Mary Gaitskill, Mavis Gallant, David Grand, Daisy Johnson, Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Munro, Rene Steinke, Jeanette Winterson, Meg Wolitzer, and the grand sorceress on whose altar she worships, Carol Shields.

Education:

Stephanie holds a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in Zoology and two graduate degrees: a master's degree in English with an emphasis on British post-colonial literature from James Madison University (2003) and a Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University (January 2021), where she studied with luminaries David Grand, Rene Steinke, Walter Cummins, and Rosie Schaap, all generous and faultless in their attention and dedication. 

Awards & Nominations:

In addition to the above literary awards and nominations, Stephanie received numerous accolades from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She was named a Daniel C. and Martina Lewis Scholar, a University Provost Scholar, and a Michael J. Adams Scholar for Global Leadership. She was also supported by the Alumni Association through its Excellence Award and an assistantship with The Literary Review, which enabled her to work with editor-in-chief Minna Zallman Proctor. 

​

At James Madison University, Stephanie received two graduate assistantships, the Outstanding Graduate Student Award, the Dean's Award, named for the former Dean of Graduate Studies N. William Walker, and she represented the JMU Graduate School during the May 2003 graduation ceremony by serving as its flag bearer. 

​

While working at Northern Virginia Community College as a full-time faculty member, she received the Teaching Faculty Reward and Recognition Award and was nominated for the Faculty of the Year Award. She is the Presidential Sabbatical Award winner for Fall 2023. 

​

This story is beautiful. I had a chill go up my neck at the end of it. It is moving and gloriously authentic. Part of my chill was the knowledge that you are so much better at this than you know, and I'm going to be in on the wondrous discovery ahead of you--the discovery that your talent is real, and up to the task.

--Robert Bausch (1944-2018)
 
Beloved mentor and friend
in a letter after reading
"Yields of Harvest"
.

Steph_edited.jpg
bottom of page