Recent Awards

Keya’s work consistently earns awards and recognition. Her stories have appeared in publications like The Kenyon Review (twice), Best New American Voices, The Bennington Review, and the Bellevue Literary Review. Her latest accolades continue the trend.

Keya and her writing have been named:

2024 Wins and Finalist Distinctions

Nonfiction Awards and Finalists

  • Winner, 2024 Prairie Schooner Summer Nonfiction Contest

  • Winner, 2024 Missouri Review Perkoff Prize in Creative Nonfiction

  • Runner-Up, Witness Magazine Literary Awards for “South on Sisters”

  • Finalist, 2024 New Letters Conger Beasley Jr. Award

  • ​Finalist, 2021 Iowa Review Prize in Nonfiction

  • Finalist, 202​1 Disquiet International Literary Prize in Nonfiction

Fiction Awards and Finalists

Short Story and Essay Collections

  • Bad Babies:

    • Finalist, 2024 AWP Grace Paley Prize

    • Finalist, 2024 Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize

    • Shortlisted for:

      • Bakeless Prize

      • Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction

      • Dzanc Books Diverse Voices Prize

      • Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction

    • Longlisted for:

      • Iowa Short Fiction Award

  • Immigration Delay Disease (Novel Excerpt):

    • Winner of the 2021 Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction

Novels

  • Human Enough:

    • Finalist, ​2021 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction

Fellowships

  • Bread Loaf Scholar in Fiction

  • Tennessee Williams Scholar in Fiction, 2021 Sewanee Writers’ Conference

  • Fulbright Research Scholarship to India

Teaching and Research Honors

Other Distinctions

  • Notable Mention, Best American Short Stories 2018