More on Daniel Mueenuddin & Ordering his Prize-Winning Book

Various Ways to ORDER "In Other Rooms" and look for updates/videos here

In a ceremony at the New School in New York City on Wednesday night, Daniyal Mueenuddin was awarded the 2009 Story Prize for his collection "In Other Rooms, Other Wonders." The collection has received many commendations -- it was a finalist for the National Book Award and is nominated for the L.A. Times book prize for first fiction -- and Mueenuddin has been running to keep up with them. He splits his time between his farm in Pakistan -- the setting for the stories in his book -- and cities like New York and London.

"At the farm, there's nothing that distracts me. There's nothing to do there," he said after the awards ceremony. Mueenuddin has plenty of responsibilities in Pakistan -- he manages the large farm -- but beyond that, he's got nothing but time to work. "I write in the morning and farm in the afternoon."

But away from the farm, there is nothing but distraction. Friends and fans gathered around him after the awards announcement, one a former classmate from his MFA program at the University of Arizona (he also has a law degree from Yale). There's the travel -- Thursday morning he heads back to London, where his wife is studying. E-mails come pouring in, so many that he's considering going offline to refocus on his writing.

"You can make a choice if you're a romantic or a cynic," Mueenuddin had explained earlier in an onstage interview with the Story Prize's Larry Dark. "And you end up being happier if you're a romantic."...READ REST:

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: W.W. Norton and Co.