A. Muia

A. Muia was the winner of last year's Flannery O'Connor Award for "A Desert Between Two Seas," a novel that was among the Pima County Public Library's Southwest Books of the Year and a finalist for the Iowa Short Fiction Award. Muia's stories and articles have appeared in Chicago Review, Grist, Image Journal, the Orison Anthology, Water~Stone Review, West Branch, and AWP's The Writer's Chronicle. She is a frequent speaker and workshop facilitator, and she leads writing circles with youth in juvenile detention through the nonprofit Underground Writing.

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Awards: Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, finalist for Iowa Short Fiction Prize, 2026 Top Pick for Southwest Books of the Year

Southwest Families, Past and Present

Four novelists---all inspired by the desert---discuss how they use the region to tell powerful stories rooted in history and informed by current events

UA Library/Special Collections (Seats 110)  
Sat, Mar 14, 2:30 pm - 3:25 pm
Southwest Books of the Year
Signing area: Sales & Signing Area - Integrated Learning Center (following presentation)  

Panelists: Evanthia Bromiley, Nathan Harris, Anne Hillerman, A. Muia
Moderator: Mark Athitakis
Sponsors: Session made possible courtesy of University of Arizona Libraries, University of Arizona Press, Diane Huggins

Workshop: The Power of Place

How do we write stories that embody the soul of a place? Meet A. Muia, winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and learn how authors immerse their readers in landscapes that move, breathe, and have agency.

Integrated Learning Center Room 125AB (Seats 40, Wheelchair accessible)  
Sun, Mar 15, 1:00 pm - 1:55 pm
Fiction / Literature
Signing area: No Signing for this Panel (following presentation)

Panelist: A. Muia
Sponsor: Session made possible courtesy of Words, Women, and Wine Book Club

Book:

A Desert Between Two Seas

A Novel in Stories
Southwest Books of the Year
University of Georgia Press
September 2025
ISBN 9780820374383
248 pages