Amanda Coplin is an American novelist. She was born in Wenatchee, Washington, and graduated from the University of Oregon and University of Minnesota.
In 2013 Coplin won a Whiting Writer's Award and was named to the National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35". [1] [2]
Coplin's debut novel, The Orchardist was released through HarperCollins on August 21, 2012. [3] The work deals with an orchardist that takes in two pregnant teenage sisters that are fleeing an abusive pimp that enslaved them in his brothel. The book received praise from NPR, the Denver Post , and The Washington Post . [4] [5] [6] The work went on to win the 2013 American Book Award and Washington State Book Award for Fiction. [7] [8]
Michael Cunningham is an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for his 1998 novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999. Cunningham is Professor in the Practice of Creative Writing at Yale University.
The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation and has been presented since 1985. As of 2021, winners receive US$50,000.
Alice McDermott is an American writer and university professor. For her 1998 novel Charming Billy she won an American Book Award and the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. She was shortlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction.
The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "there are no categories, no nominees, and therefore no losers."
Denis Hale Johnson was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. He is perhaps best known for his debut short story collection, Jesus' Son (1992). His most successful novel, Tree of Smoke (2007), won the National Book Award for Fiction. Johnson was twice shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Altogether, Johnson was the author of nine novels, one novella, two books of short stories, three collections of poetry, two collections of plays, and one book of reportage. His final work, a book of short stories titled The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, was published posthumously in 2018.
Victor LaValle is an American author. He is the author of a short-story collection, Slapboxing with Jesus, and five novels, The Ecstatic,Big Machine,The Devil in Silver,The Changeling, and Lone Women. His fantasy-horror novella The Ballad of Black Tom won the 2016 Shirley Jackson Award for best novella. LaValle writes fiction primarily, though he has also written essays and book reviews for GQ, Essence Magazine, The Fader, and The Washington Post, among other publications.
Laila Lalami is a Moroccan-American novelist, essayist, and professor. After earning her licence ès lettres degree in Morocco, she received a fellowship to study in the United Kingdom (UK), where she earned an MA in linguistics.
Daniel Alarcón is a Peruvian-American novelist, journalist and radio producer. He is co-founder, host and executive producer of Radio Ambulante, an award-winning Spanish language podcast distributed by NPR. Currently, he is an assistant professor of broadcast journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and writes about Latin America for The New Yorker.
Lauren Groff is an American novelist and short story writer. She has written five novels and two short story collections, including Fates and Furies (2015), Florida (2018), Matrix (2022), and The Vaster Wilds (2023).
Adam Johnson is an American novelist and short story writer. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2012 novel, The Orphan Master's Son, and the National Book Award for his 2015 story collection Fortune Smiles. He is also a professor of English at Stanford University with a focus on creative writing.
Ben Fountain is an American writer currently living in Dallas, Texas. He has won many awards including a PEN/Hemingway Award for Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories (2007) and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction for his debut novel Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2012).
Two Dollar Radio is an independent family-run publisher based in Columbus, Ohio. The company was founded in 2005 by husband-and-wife team Eric Obenauf and Eliza Jane Wood-Obenauf, with Brian Obenauf. The press specializes in literary fiction. In 2013 they launched their micro-budget film division, Two Dollar Radio "Moving Pictures." In 2017 they co-founded the annual Columbus, Ohio, arts festival The Flyover Fest. Also in 2017 (September) the press opened a brick-and-mortar named Two Dollar Radio Headquarters on the south side of Columbus, Ohio, which is a bookstore, full bar, performance space, and vegan coffeehouse and cafe, carrying Two Dollar Radio titles as well as a selection of almost exclusively independently published books.
The Orchardist (2012) is a novel by American author Amanda Coplin set in the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the 20th century.
Claire Vaye Watkins is an American author and academic.
Jennifer duBois is an American novelist. duBois is a recipient of a Whiting Award and has been named a "5 Under 35" honoree by the National Book Foundation.
Mitchell S. Jackson is an American writer. He is the author of the 2013 novel The Residue Years, as well as Oversoul (2012), an ebook collection of essays and short stories. Jackson is a Whiting Award recipient and a former winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. In 2021, while an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Chicago, he won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing for his profile of Ahmaud Arbery for Runner's World. As of 2021, Jackson is the John O. Whiteman Dean's Distinguished Professor in the Department of English at Arizona State University.
Phillip B. Williams is an American poet. Born in Chicago, he is the author of the chapbooks Bruised Gospels and Burn as well as the full length poetry collections Thief in the Interior and MUTINY.
Merritt Tierce is an American short story author, story editor, essayist, activist, and novelist. Tierce was born in Texas and attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, receiving her MFA in Fiction in 2011. She previously taught at the University of Iowa. She was a founding board member of the Texas Equal Access Fund and previously worked as Executive Director of the TEA. She currently resides in Los Angeles and is a writer for Orange is the New Black.
Naomi Jackson is an American author most known for her novel The Star Side of Bird Hill, which was nominated for the NAACP Image Award. She is a Fulbright recipient, and a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi is an Iranian-American writer. She won the 2015 Whiting Award for Fiction and the 2019 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.