Join us for a reading with Whitney Watson and Elizabeth Poliner. Whitney Watson will be reading from her short story “In Ypres,” which won the 2026 Short Story Prize from North American Review and will be published in its annual publication, Short Story. Elizabeth Poliner will be reading from her new novel, Spinning at the Edges. This in-person event will be free and open to the public. We recommend arriving early for the best seating.
Whitney Watson is a short story writer at work on her first novel. She is a graduate of Northwestern University and holds an MFA in creative writing from Hollins University. At Hollins, she was awarded the Julia Randall Sawyer Fellowship and Andrew James Purdy Prize in Short Fiction. Recently, she won the 2026 Short Story Prize from North American Review. A native of southern California, Whitney lives in Charlottesville with her husband and three sons.
Elizabeth Poliner is the author of the novels Spinning at the Edges and As Close to Us as Breathing, which won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in Fiction and was a finalist for the Library of Virginia’s People’s Choice Award in Fiction and the Ribalow Prize. She has also published a poetry collection, What You Know in Your Hands, and a novel-in-stories, Mutual Life & Casualty. Her stories have been published in The Kenyon Review, TriQuarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, Story, and Colorado Review, among other journals. She lives in Virginia.
To order the Short Story annual from North American Review (featuring Whitney Watson’s short story) and Elizabeth Poliner’s novel Spinning at the Edges, please see below for the New Dominion Bookshop book order form or call the shop at 434-295-2552.
New Dominion Bookshop Book Order Form
Shop local and support your community bookshop! Order books from New Dominion Bookshop by filling out the contact form below. Please make sure that you list the book title(s) that you would like to order. We will give you a call when your order is ready. There is no need to pre-pay. We will collect your payment when you pick up your order or when your order is shipped. If you would like your book(s) to be signed and/or inscribed, please include that information in the “Message for Our Booksellers” field.