The latest book by Lisa Norris (‘79 B.S. in forestry with a concentration in fisheries and wildlife), a collection of short stories called Women Who Sleep With Animals, won the 2010 Stephen F. Austin State University Press Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the Spokane Prize. The book’s nine stories offer glimpses of women and animals in their moments of extremity, in settings ranging from the suburbs to wildlife reserves. Her first book, Toy Guns: Stories, won the Willa Cather Fiction Prize in 1999; her stories, poems, and creative nonfiction have been published in a number of outlets. Norris, who taught English at Virginia Tech from 1991 to 2007, is now a professor of writing and literature at Central Washington University.

Neil F. Payne (’64 M.S. in wildlife) has recently completed a new book entitled Wildlife Delights and Dilemmas. Payne’s fifth book highlights the successes and frustrations of the Newfoundland and Labrador Wildlife Division, drawn from his experience as the division’s first furbearer biologist from 1967 to 1971, as well as amusing, historical, dangerous, and fascinating stories from other early wildlife workers. Among his other publications are three comprehensive books on techniques of wildlife habitat improvement for wetlands and uplands in north America. A professor emeritus of wildlife at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Payne taught full time and conducted research from 1975 until his retirement in 1998. He currently splits his time between Plover, Wisc., Sanibel, Fla., and Campbellton, Newfoundland.