04/28/2026
Please join us in congratulating Professor Maurice Carlos Ruffin on being awarded a 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship!🥳 The Guggenheim fellowship is a prestigious award that is given to artists, scientists, and scholars who show exceptional promise in their work.
When asked how he felt when finding out that he had been awarded the fellowship, Professor Ruffin wrote that “it was a great feeling to know that my hard work, which would not have been possible without the support of the LSU scholarly community, was being rewarded.”
Professor Ruffin plans to use the fellowship to spend more time on his current project, “Liars Bouquet,” which is a contemporary satire set in New Orleans about “a family trying to navigate our amazing, but complex world.” He stated that he was inspired to start this project because he loves “to take what’s happening in our society and spin a story from it.”
When asked about the greatest accomplishments of his career, Professor Ruffin said, “I’m very happy that I’ve been able to write stories and books that highlight our unique Louisiana culture, especially my hometown of New Orleans.”
Professor Ruffin’s advice for aspiring Guggenheim Fellows, writers, and artists alike is to read as much as possible, question your assumptions, put your work out there, and have fun!
