WPI English Professor Michelle Ephraim’s memoir, Green World: A Tragicomic Memoir of Love & Shakespeare(University of Massachusetts Press, 2024), has been named to the shortlist for the 12th William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. The biennial prize, awarded jointly by the Stanford University Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation, honors the Saroyan literary legacy of originality, stylistic innovation and 'exuberant humanism' of newly published works of fiction and nonfiction. Winners and finalists will be announced later this summer.
The recognition marks the latest honor for Green World, which continues to earn widespread literary acclaim. In 2025, the memoir received the Wisconsin Library Association Literary Award and was named one of two recipients of the Friends of American Writers 2025 Literature Award. The book also earned the 2023 Juniper Prize for Creative Nonfiction.
In Green World, Ephraim recounts her deeply personal and often humorous journey from struggling graduate student to Shakespeare scholar after unexpectedly attending a Shakespeare recitation gathering. The memoir weaves together her own experiences with themes from The Merchant of Venice, exploring trauma, identity, belonging, and the transformative power of literature. Through Shakespeare’s works, Ephraim discovers a “Green World” — a place of refuge, resilience, and renewal.
