Karen E. Bender is an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

and

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

writer.

Biography

Karen E. Bender is the author of the short story collection ''Refund'', which was a Finalist for the National Book Award in fiction for 2015, and on the shortlist for the 2015 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and the novels ''A Town of Empty Rooms'' and ''Like Normal People''; ''Like Normal People'' was a Los Angeles Times Bestseller, and a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. Both her collections ''Refund'' and ''The New Order'' were Longlisted for

The Story Prize The Story Prize is an annual book award established in 2004 that honors the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction with a $20,000 cash award. Each of two runners-up receives $5,000. Eligible books must be written in English and first p ...

. Writing about "A Town of Empty Rooms," reviewer S. Kirk Walsh said in the ''Boston Globe'', Bender has taught fiction writing for the MFA programs at Hollins University,

Chatham University Chatham University is a private university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally founded as a women's college, it began enrolling men in undergraduate programs in 2015. It enrolls about 2,110 students, including 1,002 undergraduate students an ...

Tunghai University Tunghai University (THU; ) is the oldest private university in Taiwan, established in 1955. It was founded by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA). It is located in Xitun District, Taichung, Taiwan. According to ''Tim ...

in Taiwan, and the

University of North Carolina Wilmington The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW or UNC Wilmington) is a public research university in Wilmington, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina System and enrolls 17,499 undergraduate and graduate students eac ...

. She is on the Core faculty for Alma College and is a Visiting Writer at the MFA program at SUNY Stony Brook. She has received grants from the Rona Jaffe Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is also co-editor of the nonfiction anthology ''Choice''. Her short stories have appeared in magazines, including ''The New Yorker'', ''Granta'', ''Ploughshares'', ''Zoetrope'', ''Story'', ''The Kenyon Review'', ''Guernica'', ''Narrative'', ''The Harvard Review'' and ''The Iowa Review''. Her fiction has been anthologized in the Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, New Stories from the South and The Pushcart Prize series and has been read as part of the "Selected Short" series at

Symphony Space Symphony Space, founded by Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (also called Pe ...

in New York. Her work has also been read by Levar Burton as part of his series "Levar Burton Reads." She has written nonfiction for ''The New York Times'', ''Real Simple'', ''O'' magazine and others.

Works

The Fourth Prussian Dynasty
''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', 1999 * ''Like Normal People'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000. * ''A town of empty rooms'', Berkeley, CA Counterpoint 2013. , * ''Refund : stories'', Berkeley, CA : Counterpoint Press, 2015. , * ''New Order : Stories.'', Counterpoint Press 2018. ,

References

External links

Karen E. Bender's official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bender, Karen Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni 20th-century American novelists Novelists from Los Angeles American women novelists American women short story writers Living people 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American short story writers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women Academic staff of Tunghai University