Lori Ostlund

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Lori Ostlund
Alma mater Minnesota State University Moorhead,
University of New Mexico
GenreShort story fiction
Notable awards Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction

Lori Ostlund (born March 13, 1965) is an American short story writer and novelist. She is the author of two story collections, The Bigness of the World (2009) and Are You Happy? (2025), and the novel After the Parade (2015).

Contents

Early life and education

She grew up in a town of 400 people in central Minnesota, where her parents owned a hardware store.[ citation needed ] She graduated from Minnesota State University Moorhead and from the University of New Mexico with an M.A.

Career

Since 2023, she has been the series editor of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, an award she has previously won. [1] She has taught ESL and Creative Writing. She currently works as a freelance developmental editor.

Her work has appeared in many journals, including The Georgia Review , New England Review , The Kenyon Review , Prairie Schooner , Bellingham Review , Hobart , and Blue Mesa Review. Her story "All Boy" appeared in The Best American Short Stories 2010 and "Just Another Family" appeared in The Best American Short Stories 2024 . She has also received an O. Henry Award.

Personal life

She has lived in New Mexico, Spain, Malaysia, North Carolina, and California.[ citation needed ] She met her wife, the writer Anne Raeff, in New Mexico in 1989, and they have lived in San Francisco, starting 2005. [2]

Awards

YearWorkAwardCategoryResultRef.
2009The Bigness of the World California Book Award First FictionWon [3]
Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction Won
Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award FictionWon [4]
2010 Edmund White Award Won [5]
Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award Longlisted [6]
Lambda Literary Award Lesbian Debut Fiction Finalist [7]
William Saroyan International Prize for Writing FictionShortlisted
2015After the Parade Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Finalist [8]
2016 Ferro-Grumley Award Finalist [9]
2017 Simpson Family Literary Prize Shortlisted [10]

Selected works

Novel

Collections

Short stories

References

  1. "Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction". Georgia Press. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
  2. "Lori Ostlund". July 27, 2009.
  3. "Past Winners". www.commonwealthclub.org. Retrieved January 25, 2025.
  4. "Home". ronajaffefoundation.org.
  5. "The Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction". The Publishing Triangle. Retrieved January 25, 2025.
  6. "eric forbes's book addict's guide to good books: 2010 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award LONGLIST" . Retrieved January 25, 2025.
  7. Valenzuela, Tony (May 10, 2010). "22nd Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Retrieved January 25, 2025.
  8. "2015 First Novel Prize". The Center for Fiction. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  9. "Awards: Publishing Triangle; Yale Younger Poets". Shelf Awareness . March 14, 2017. Archived from the original on February 23, 2024. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  10. McMurtrie, John (April 3, 2017). "4 finalists named for new $50,000 Simpson Family Literary Prize". SF Gate. Retrieved January 25, 2025.