University of Tampa Poet, Non-Fiction Writer Publishes Debut Fiction Novel

Don Morrill, a poet, nonfiction writer and longtime University of Tampa faculty member, has published the novel “Beaut,” his first work of fiction.

The book, which won the Lee Smith Fiction Prize from Carolina Wren Press, follows a female protagonist who “illuminates the discordant accords of marriage and madness, the ambivalence in motherhood, and the mysteries of inheritance.”

Morrill, who currently serves as the associate dean of Graduate and Continuing Studies at UT and teaches in its Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program, is the author of three volumes of poetry and four nonfiction books. He has also served as the Bedell Visiting Writer in the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa, and the Writer-in-Residence at the Poetry Center at Smith College.

The book was published by Blair, and will be available at online and traditional bookstores May 1.