Karen Russell
Karen Russell (born 10 July 1981 in Miami, Florida) is an American writer.
Life
Karen Russell graduated from Senior High School in Coral Gables, Florida. She studied Spanish at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and Literature at Columbia University in New York. At Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, she is Professor of Creative Writing. In spring 2012, she was Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fiction Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin.
Work
Her stories and essays appeared among others in the literary magazines Conjunctions, Five Fingers Review, Granta, The New Yorker, Oxford American, Tin House and Zoetrope: All- Story. Her first book publication, under the title of St. Lucy 's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves was released in 2007, contains ten short stories. Her second collection of short stories Vampires in the Lemon Grove appeared in 2013 and contains eight short stories. Her short story The Hox River Window (first published 2011 in Zeotropic: All Story, in Vampires in the Lemon Grove included under the title Proving Up ) received the 2012 National Magazine Award in the category of fiction. The narrative Ava Wrestles the Alligator, she expanded to her first novel, Swamplandia!
Swamplandia! is about the breakup of a family, who own or operate a rundown specializing in Alligator Wrestling leisure attraction in the Everglades. The novel was nominated together with Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, and David Foster Wallace's The Pale King ( posthumously ) for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012. The jury, consisting of Susan Larson, Maureen Corrigan and Michael Cunningham, but could not decide, so the price was not awarded this year. Translations of Swamplandia! published in German ( translated by Simone James), French ( translated by Valérie Malfoy ), Italian ( translated by Clara Nubile ), Catalan ( translated by Marta Pera Cucurell ) and Spanish ( translated by Isabel Margeli Bailo ).
Works
- St. Lucy 's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. Vintage, New York, 2007 ISBN 978-0-307-27667-4. (Short story collection ) German language edition: Sleeping Institute for Dream Disturbed. Translated by Malte Krutzsch. Kein & Aber, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-0369-5513-1.
- German language edition: Swamplandia. Translated by Simone Jacob. Kein & Aber, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-0369-5514-8.
- German language edition: Vampire in the lemon grove. Translated by Malte Krutzsch. Kein & Aber, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-0369-5674-9.
Awards
- 2005: Transatlantic Review / Henfield Foundation Award
- 2006: Nominated for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award for the short story collection St. Lucy 's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
- 2011: Bard Fiction Prize of Bard College for the short story collection St. Lucy 's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
- 2011: Recording of Swamplandia! in the list of the five best novels of 2011, the New York Times
- 2012: New York Public Library 's Young Lions Fiction Award for Swamplandia!
- 2012: National Magazine Award in the category of fiction for The Hox River Window
- 2012: Shirley Jackson Award for Novelette for Reeling for the Empire
- 2013: MacArthur Fellowship