2010 Presenters
Gish Jen
Celebrated novelist and short story writer, Gish Jen holds degrees from Harvard University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Her novels have received widespread acclaim, called “vibrant, vital… wise and compassionate” (People) and “always engaging, always necessary” (Margaret Juhae Lee, Newsday). She followed up her first novel, Typical American, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, with Mona in the Promised Land, continuing to explore the notions of cultural diversity, ethnic identity, and what it means to be American - themes that run through all of her work. The Los Angeles Times named Mona in the Promised Land one of the top ten books of 1996. Who’s Irish?, her collection of short stories, was published in 1999, and The Love Wife, her third novel, was published in 2004, Both were New York Times Notable Books.
Jen’s short stories have appeared in many publications including The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times, as well as in various anthologies. She has been selected twice as a featured contributor to the Best American Short Stories series. Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Radcliffe Institute fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and a Mildred and Harold Strauss Living from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is also a new member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Her much-anticipated fourth novel is World & Town.
LINKS:
Archived articles about Jen and her work from The New York Times
Interview with Jen on her previous novels
Interview with Jen on becoming an American
Interview with Jen on her short stories
