Karen Russell | |
---|---|
Born |
Miami, Florida |
July 10, 1981
Occupation | Writer |
Education | Coral Gables Senior High School |
Alma mater | Northwestern University, Columbia University |
Notable awards | MacArthur fellowship, 5 under 35 honoree |
Karen Russell (born July 10, 1981) is an American novelist and short story writer. Her debut novel, Swamplandia!, was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She was also the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" in 2013. In 2009 the National Book Foundation named her a 5 under 35 honoree.
Russell, after graduation from Coral Gables Senior High School in Miami in 1999, received a B.A. in Spanish from Northwestern University in 2003 and graduated from the MFA program at Columbia University in 2006.
Her brother, Kent Russell, is also a writer.
Her stories have been featured in The Best American Short Stories, Conjunctions, Granta, The New Yorker, Oxford American, and Zoetrope.
She was named a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" young writer honoree at a November 2009 ceremony for her first book of short stories, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.
Her second book and first novel, Swamplandia!, about a shabby amusement park set in the Everglades, was long-listed for the Orange Prize 2011. It was also included in the New York Times' "10 Best Books of 2011," and won the New York Public Library's 2012 Young Lions Fiction Award.