Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (born February 14, 1972) is a Chinese American writer. She previously taught writing and literature in the Graduate MFA Writing program at

Otis College of Art and Design Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...

until 2015. Bynum is a graduate of Brown University and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter. Her brother is musician

Taylor Ho Bynum Taylor Ho Bynum (born 1975) is a musician, composer, educator and writer. His main instrument is the cornet, but he also plays numerous similar instruments, including flugelhorn and trumpet. Early life Bynum was born in BaltimoreWilmoth, Charli" ...

. Fairy tales are a common theme in many of her works. Bynum describes fairy tales by saying, "they always walk that line between wonder and darkness." ''Madeleine is Sleeping'' was published by Harcourt in 2004, was a finalist for the

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 ...

, and winner of the

Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize The Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize is a literary award presented annually for the "best book-length work of prose fiction" by an American woman. The award has been given by the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women's Studies and the Depar ...

. Her short stories, including excerpts from her new novel, have appeared in

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 ...

Tin House ''Tin House'' is an American book publisher based in Portland, Oregon, and New York City. Portland publisher Win McCormack originally conceived the idea for a literary magazine called ''Tin House'' in the summer of 1998. He enlisted Holly MacArt ...

, Triquarterly, The Georgia Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and in

Best American Short Stories The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of '' The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in co ...

. Her second novel, ''Ms. Hempel Chronicles'', was published in September 2008 and was a finalist for the

PEN/Faulkner Award The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living American citizens. The winner receives US$15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US$5000. Fi ...

in 2009. In a 2009 book review of ''Ms. Hempel Chronicles'' published in the Sunday book review of ''The New York Times,'' Josh Emmons notes Bynum's "prose remains nimble and entertaining, a model of quiet control well suited to its subject" and the "deftness with which s. Hempelobserves and describes her world and its inhabitants is so engaging that for all its circumspection and regrettable lacunae, “Ms. Hempel Chronicles” works as an account of how nostalgia — both for what was and might have been — can generate a thousand mercies." In 2010, Bynum was named one of ''New Yorker'' magazine's top "20 Under 40" fiction writers in which the editors note her works "offer idiosyncratic, voice-driven narratives." In 2017, she was featured in an interview in ''The'' ''New Yorker'' magazine on surviving adolescence and social media.

Awards

* 2004

for ''Madeleine is Sleeping'' * 2005 Whiting Award for Fiction * 2020 Finalist 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 ...

Works

Books

* *

Anthologies

* *

Short stories

*
Accomplice
" ''The Georgia Review''. Spring 2003. *
Creep
" ''TriQuarterly''. Spring 2005. * *
These Are Mysteries
" Gulf Coast. Winter/Spring 2011. *"Christmas, 1990." The Cincinnati Review. Winter 2011. * *
Likes
. ''The New Yorker''. 9 October 2017.

Essays

* on

Angela Carter Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...

's ''The Bloody Chamber'' for ''Amazon: Writers Under the Influence''. Fall 2004. * on

Edmund White Edmund Valentine White III (born 1940) is an American novelist, memoirist, playwright, biographer and an essayist on literary and social topics. Since 1999 he has been a professor at Princeton University. France made him (and later ) de l'Ordr ...

's ''A Boy's Own Story'' for
A New Literary History of America
'. September 2009. * on

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...

's ''Goodbye, Columbus'' for
Ninth Letter
'. Spring/Summer 2010.

Book Reviews

Gautam Malkani Gautam Malkani is a journalist for ''The Financial Times'', and the author of the novel '' Londonstani''. He has worked on the FT's UK news desk in London as well as in the Washington bureau. He is currently an associate editor on the FT Weekend M ...

's novel ''Londonstani''. The Washington Post. June 2006.

Readings

* Reading of
Extra
by

Yiyun Li Yiyun Li (born November 4, 1972) is a Chinese-born writer and professor in the United States. Her short stories and novels have won several awards, including the PEN/Hemingway Award and Guardian First Book Award for ''A Thousand Years of Good Pra ...

with Deborah Treisman for ''The New Yorker'', 2017.

References

External links

Profile at The Whiting FoundationSarah Shun-lien Bynum's personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bynum, Sarah Shun-Lien American women short story writers Living people Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Place of birth missing (living people) 1972 births 21st-century American short story writers Brown University alumni Otis College of Art and Design faculty American women novelists 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners American women academics