Karen Russell, a native of Miami, was born in 1981. She is a graduate of the Columbia MFA programme and currently lives in New York City. Her debut collection, St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, is published by Knopf in the US and will be published by Chatto & Windus in the UK in June. She is working on a novel, Swamplandia!, about a family of alligator wrestlers in the Florida swamp. Her own family recently helped her to 'research' this novel by braving the Everglades during mosquito season. She is also working at a veterinary clinic, where she gives dubious medical advice to the owners of small dogs. 'The Barn at the End of Our Term' is a new story.

Comments

bootie
March 2 17:12

Karen Russell has published one book, a collection of short stories. Yet, somehow, she is one of the 'Best Young American Novelists'? That makes no sense.

princess
March 2 19:06

Not to hate, but doesn't novelist generally mean someone who's already written a novel?

Laura Larabee
March 9 18:38

I loved Karen Russell's collection of short stories:
St. Lucy's Home for Girls raised by wolves. So imaginative…funny and sad, and the characters stayed with me…I felt as if I knew them…

Karina
March 16 14:12

Karen is brilliant. Her stories just leave you wanting for more. And re-reading her stories will open new windows into the characters each time. She's a gift to modern literature.

Rev
April 23 18:50

Just because the novel hasn't come out yet doesn't mean she's not brilliant (as is evident from the first pages of St. Lucy's). The judges clearly predicted how ridiculous her exclusion would have seemed when her novel is published. For her to have been left off this list would be beyond oversight -- she is one of the best writers of our generation, period.