Author Bios

Ted Chiang is widely regarded as the finest short fiction writer working in science fiction today, a distinction made all the more remarkable by the modesty of his output — fewer than twenty stories published over more than three decades — and the extraordinary consistency with which each one has been received as a landmark…

Pamela Erens is an American novelist whose work occupies a distinctive space in contemporary literary fiction, combining psychological precision with deeply felt explorations of female experience, religious identity, and the difficult intimacies of communal life. Born in New York in 1961, she studied at Yale University and went on to build a career that balances…

Jenny Offill is an American novelist whose work has redefined what the novel can do in the age of information overload and ecological crisis, producing formally innovative books that feel urgently contemporary while drawing on the deepest traditions of literary fiction. Born in 1968 in New Haven, Connecticut, Offill studied at the University of North…

Charlotte Wood is an Australian novelist and essayist whose work has established her as one of the most important and formally adventurous writers in contemporary Australian literature. Born in 1965 in Leeton, New South Wales, Wood grew up in rural Australia and has spent her career as a novelist, editor, and passionate advocate for Australian…

Keith Rosson is an American author of dark fiction whose work occupies the fertile territory between literary horror, supernatural thriller, and character-driven literary fiction. Based in Portland, Oregon, Rosson has built a devoted readership through novels that combine visceral, propulsive storytelling with genuine psychological depth and a willingness to explore the grief, addiction, guilt, and…

Tess Gunty is an American novelist who announced herself with one of the most remarkable debuts of recent years—a work of extraordinary formal ambition and emotional depth that won the National Book Award for Fiction and established her as a major new voice in American literature. Born in 1993 in South Bend, Indiana, Gunty grew…

Dani Shapiro is an American memoirist, novelist, and essayist whose work has made her one of the most respected and widely read writers of literary nonfiction in the United States. Born in 1962 in New York City and raised in an Orthodox Jewish family in suburban New Jersey, Shapiro has spent her career excavating the…

David Szalay is a British-Canadian author whose fiction examines the modern male experience with a clinical precision and emotional honesty that has earned him comparisons to the great realists of European literature. Born in 1974 in Montreal, Quebec, to Hungarian parents, Szalay grew up in Britain and was educated at Oxford. He has lived in…

Stephen King is the preeminent American author of horror and supernatural fiction, a writer whose extraordinary productivity and cultural dominance over five decades have made him one of the best-selling novelists in history while also earning him recognition—sometimes reluctantly granted—as a genuine literary artist. Born in 1947 in Portland, Maine, King grew up in modest…

Masande Ntshanga is a South African author and poet whose fiction explores the fractured landscape of post-apartheid South Africa with a formal daring and emotional honesty that has established him as one of the most important young voices in contemporary African literature. Born in 1986 in East London, Eastern Cape, Ntshanga grew up in the…