Molly Antopol is an American fiction and nonfiction writer. As of 2016, she is the

Jones Lecturer The Jones Lectureship at Stanford University is a two-year teaching fellowship available to previous Stegner Fellows. The Lectureship is available in fiction and poetry and is intended to provide writers with the time and support needed to complete ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. Her primary research interests include the Cold War and the Middle East. She is married to author Chanan Tigay and lives in San Francisco.

Life and career

Antopol was born in

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...

. Her debut story collection ''The UnAmericans'' was published in February 2014 by W. W. Norton & Company. In 2014, ''The UnAmericans'' was nominated for the National Book Award. Antopol won the 2015 New York Public Library

Young Lions Fiction Award The Young Lions Fiction Award is an annual US literary prize of $10,000, awarded to a writer who is 35 years old or younger for a novel or collection of short stories. The award was established in 2001 by Ethan Hawke, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, Rick ...

for ''The UnAmericans''. She also won a "5 Under 35" award from the

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

, the French-American Prize, the California Book Award Silver Medal, and the Ribalow Prize. The book was also a finalist for the PEN/Robert Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction, the National Jewish Book Award, the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the California Book Award, the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award. In the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', critic

Dwight Garner Dwight Garner (born January 8, 1965) is an American journalist and longtime writer and editor for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, he was named a book critic for the newspaper. He is the author of ''Garner's Quotations: A Modern Miscellany'' and ...

favorably compared Antopol's work to that of

Grace Paley Grace Paley (December 11, 1922 – August 22, 2007) was an American short story author, poet, teacher, and political activist. Paley wrote three critically acclaimed collections of short stories, which were compiled in the Pulitzer Prize and Na ...

and

Allegra Goodman Allegra Goodman (born 1967) is an American author based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Goodman wrote and illustrated her first novel at the age of seven. Biography Allegra Goodman was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Hawaii. The daughter ...

, finding the writing "Fresh and offbeat… memorable and promising.” In reviewing ''The UnAmericans'' for

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

, author

Meg Wolitzer Meg Wolitzer (born May 28, 1959) is an American novelist, known for '' The Wife'', ''The Ten-Year Nap'', ''The Uncoupling,'' ''The Interestings'', and ''The Female Persuasion.'' She works as an instructor in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southa ...

commented that the stories "make you nostalgic, not just for earlier times, but for another era in short fiction. A time when writers such as

Bernard Malamud Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseba ...

, and

Isaac Bashevis Singer Isaac Bashevis Singer ( yi, יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער; November 11, 1903 – July 24, 1991) was a Polish-born American Jewish writer who wrote and published first in Yiddish and later translated himself into English with the help ...

, and

roamed the earth.” She is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow and is currently a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University. She is the recipient of a Radcliffe Institute fellowship at Harvard University (2017), the Berlin Prize at the American Academy in Berlin (2017), and a fellowship from the American Library in Paris (2019).

Awards and honors

*2019 Visiting fellow at the

American Library in Paris The American Library in Paris is the largest English-language lending library on the European mainland. It operates as an independent, non-profit cultural association in France incorporated under the laws of Delaware. Library members have access t ...

*2017 Berlin Prize at the American Academy in Berlin *2016 Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard University *2015

Ribalow Prize The Ribalow Prize is a literary prize awarded annually by ''Hadassah Magazine'' the best work of fiction in English on a Jewish theme. The prize, formally the Harold U. Ribalow Prize, was endowed in memory of Harold U. Ribalow, an American writer, ...

for ''The UnAmericans'' * 2015 New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award for ''The Un-Americans'' * 2014

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

nominee for ''The Un-Americans'' * 2014 National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award for ''The Un-Americans'' * 2014

California Book Awards The Commonwealth Club of California is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Northern California. Founded in 1903, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in the United States. Membership is open to everyone. Act ...

Silver Medal First Fiction winner for ''The Un-Americans'' * 2014 National Jewish Book Award Finalist for ''The Un-Americans'' * 2014 Barnes and Noble Discover Award (2nd Place) for ''The Un-Americans'' * 2014 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award for Debut Fiction Finalist for ''The Un-Americans'' * 2014

Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature The Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature is an annual prize awarded to an outstanding literary work of Jewish interest by an emerging writer. Previously administered by the Jewish Book Council, it is now given in association with the National Libr ...

Finalist for ''The Un-Americans'' * 2014 Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish Fiction Finalist for ''The Un-Americans''

References

External links

Official Website
of ''The UnAmericans'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Antopol, Molly Living people American women short story writers Writers from California 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American women writers People from Culver City, California University of California, Santa Cruz alumni Stanford University faculty Columbia University School of the Arts alumni 1978 births