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Author Biographies AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES JESSE BALL was born in New York in 1978. He RACHEL B. GLASER published her first novel, has published six novels, a number of poetry Paulina & Fran, in 2015. She is the author of the story and prose collections, a book of drawings and a collection Pee on Water and the poetry collections pedagogical monograph, Notes on My Dunce Cap. His MOODS and HAIRDO. She studied painting and prizewinning works of absurdity have been published animation at the Rhode Island School of Design and all over the world and translated into more than a poetry and fiction at UMass Amherst. In 2013, she dozen languages. Ball won the Paris Review Plimpton received the McSweeney’s Amanda Davis Highwire Prize in 2008 and currently teaches at the School of Fiction Award. She tweets as @candle_face. the Art Institute of Chicago. LAUREN GROFF, born in New York in 1978, is HALLE BUTLER is a Chicago-based writer. Her first the author of four books, including The Monsters of novel, Jillian, published in 2015, was called the ‘feel- Templeton, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New bad book of the year’ by the Chicago Tribune. She has Writers. Her most recent novel, Fates and Furies, co-written screenplays (Crimes against Humanity; was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award Neighborhood Food Drive), and is currently working and the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award. on her second novel. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic and Tin House, among others. She lives in Gainesville, EMMA CLINE is the author of The Girls, shortlisted Florida. for the 2016 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the 2016 John Leonard Prize from the National YAA GYASI was born in Ghana and raised in Book Critics Circle. She was awarded the 2014 Paris Huntsville, Alabama. Her first novel, Homegoing, Review Plimpton Prize for her story ‘Marion’ and has earned her the National Book Critics Circle’s been published in Tin House, the Paris Review and 2016 John Leonard Award and the National Book Granta. She was born in California in 1989. Foundation’s 5 Under 35 award. She received a BA in English from Stanford University and an MFA from JOSHUA COHEN was born in Atlantic City in 1980 the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she held a Dean’s and now lives in Red Hook, Brooklyn. His books Graduate Research Fellowship. She lives in New York. include the novels Book of Numbers, Witz, A Heaven of Others, Cadenza for the Schneidermann Violin GARTH RISK HALLBERG was born in Denham Concerto, a short story collection, Four New Messages, Springs, Louisiana and grew up in North Carolina. and a work of nonfiction, Attention! A (Short) History. He is the author of A Field Guide to the North American His latest novel, Moving Kings, will be published by Family and City on Fire, which was named one of the Random House in the summer of 2017. best books of 2015 by the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal and NPR. He MARK DOTEN is a Minnesota-born writer currently now lives in New York. ‘The Meat Suit’ is an excerpt living in Brooklyn. His debut novel, The Infernal, from his forthcoming novel. was published by Graywolf Press in 2015. He is the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony GREG JACKSON has been a Fiction Fellow at the and Columbia University, where he completed an Fine Arts Work Center and the MacDowell Colony, MFA. He is the literary fiction editor at Soho Press as well as a Henry Hoyns Fellow at the University of and teaches in Columbia’s graduate writing program. Virginia. He is the recipient of a 5 Under 35 award from the National Book Foundation for his story JEN GEORGE was born and raised in Thousand collection Prodigals. Jackson grew up in Maine and Oaks, California. She is the author of the short now lives in Brooklyn. story collection The Babysitter at Rest, released with Dorothy, a publishing project, in 2016. Her writing SANA KRASIKOV, a Ukrainian-born writer, lived in has appeared in BOMB, Harper’s, the Los Angeles Georgia and Kenya before returning to the US four Review of Books, n+1 and the Paris Review Daily. She years ago. In 2009 she published her first collection lives in New York where she is currently at work on of stories, One More Year. She is a Fulbright Scholar a novel. and a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the 2007 Guardian First Book Award, a 5 Under 35 Virginia Quarterly Review, Epoch and Zoetrope. Her award from the National Book Foundation and was latest novel The Patriots was published this year by included in the New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 selection Spiegel & Grau in the US and Granta Books in the UK. in 2010. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2012. His journalism and fiction have appeared in CATHERINE LACEY is the author of Nobody is Ever Harper’s, Rolling Stone, the New Yorker and the Wall Missing, a novel that won a 2016 Whiting Award and Street Journal. was a finalist for the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award. It has been translated into five languages. The OTTESSA MOSHFEGH is the Boston-born author of Answers is forthcoming in June 2017, an excerpt of McGlue and Eileen, which was shortlisted for the 2016 which appears in this issue. Her first story collection, Man Booker Prize, and the story collection Homesick Certain American States, will follow. She was born in for Another World. She was awarded the Plimpton Prize Mississippi in 1985 and is currently based in Chicago. for her stories in the Paris Review, granted a creative- writing fellowship from the National Endowment for BEN LERNER was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1979. the Arts and served as a Wallace Stegner Fellow at He has received fellowships from the Fulbright, Stanford University. Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, among other honors. He is the author of three books of poetry CHINELO OKPARANTA is the author of Under the (The Lichtenberg Figures, Angle of Yaw and Mean Free Udala Trees and Happiness, Like Water. She was born Path) and two novels (Leaving the Atocha Station and in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, received her bachelor’s 10:04 ). His most recent book is the monograph The degree from Pennsylvania State University, her MA Hatred of Poetry. from Rutgers University and her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is a 2014 O. Henry Award KARAN MAHAJAN was born in 1984 and grew up winner, as well as a two-time Lambda Literary in New Delhi. He is the author of Family Planning Award winner. Her work was nominated for the 2016 and The Association of Small Bombs, which was NAACP Image Award in Fiction as well as for the a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction. 2016 Hurston/ Wright Legacy Award for Fiction. Her A graduate of Stanford University and the Michener stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Tin House, Center for Writers, he currently lives in Austin, Texas. the Kenyon Review and elsewhere. He has worked as an editor, a consultant for the New York City government and a researcher in ESMÉ WEIJUN WANG is a mental health advocate, Bangalore. ‘The Anthology’ is an extract from a essayist and the author of the novel The Border forthcoming novella. of Paradise. She won the 2016 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize for her book of essays, The Collected ANTHONY MARRA, born in Washington DC, is the Schizophrenias. Her work has appeared in Elle, author of the collection of stories The Tsar of Love and Catapult, Hazlitt, the Believer and Lenny. She lives in Techno, a finalist for the 2015 National Book Critics San Francisco, California. Circle Award and winner of the 2016 American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Family CLAIRE VAYE WATKINS was born and raised in the Foundation Award. His first novel, A Constellation of Mojave Desert, California. She is a graduate of the Vital Phenomena, won the inaugural National Book University of Nevada, Reno, and earned her MFA Critics Circle John Leonard Prize. He has received from the Ohio State University. She is the author of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the novel Gold Fame Citrus and the story collection the National Endowment for the Arts, and is currently Battleborn. A Guggenheim Fellow, she is also on the the Jones Lecturer in Fiction at Stanford University. teaching faculty at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the Helen Zell DINAW MENGESTU was born in Ethiopia and Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. raised in Illinois. He is the author of three novels, She and her husband Derek Palacio co-founded The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears, How to Read the Mojave School, a free arts camp for teenagers in the Air and All Our Names. He is the recipient of the rural Nevada..
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