"These are stories about loss and fear, but also about the courage and intensity of feeling that drive us to reach out to people around us," says New Jersey author David Harris Ebenbach about his debut collection 'Between Camelots'. The volume takes its name from one of its stories--a man at a backyard barbecue waiting for a blind date who never arrives. "Like many of the characters in this collection, he is struggling to forge and keep connections with people, and so often fails to hold on."

Between Camelots is the twenty-fifth winner of the prestigious Drue Heinz Literature Prize ($15,000), awarded annually by the University of Pittsburgh Press for a book of short stories. It was selected from among nearly 300 entries by this year's judge, award winning author Stewart O'Nan.

O'Nan praised Ebenbach's work by stating, "These stories of searching young Americans are intimate and sharply detailed, sometimes hopeful, often sad, with just a taste of the strange. In 'Between Camelots', Ebenbach is always in full command, leading the reader moment-by-moment through his/her people's dis- and missed connections, ultimately leaving us alone with them at the quiet end of the night."

Ebenbach earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Vermont College of Norwich University and a
Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. His short fiction and poetry has been published in numerous literary magazines, including Denver Quarterly, Beloit Fiction Journal, and Crazyhorse. A Philadelphia native, he resides in Montclair, New Jersey, with his wife, Rachel Gartner.

Ebenbach said he was "overwhelmed" to hear he had won the DHLP. "This prize means that a
manuscript--a pile of pages--becomes my first book. It means that these stories I care about so much have found a home."