UVA English prof/acclaimed writer Deborah Eisenberg is one of 24 people chosen for the 2009 MacArthur Fellowship, which comes with a no-strings-attached $500,000. The New York Times predicted her 2006 short fiction collection, Twilight of the Superheroes, would “establish her as one of the most important fiction writers now at work.” When not teaching fiction, Eisenberg lives in New York with longtime companion Wallace Shawn.

The last UVA faculty member to receive the MacArthur was Terry Belanger, former head of the Rare Book School, in 2005. — PHOTO BY JANE HALEY