News
The latest updates.
New essay in Real Simple magazine
02 Jul 2015“We didn’t know that the house was inhabited. We just knew that it was free.” New essay appears in the July issue of Real Simple. You can read the essay here.
Refund is on the Shortlist for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award
05 Jun 2015Refund is on the Frank O’Connor Story Award shortlist! You can read about it here.
Interview at the Los Angeles Review of Books site
21 May 2015Nancy Spiller interviews me for LARB. You can read the interview here.
My story “Free Lunch” is the featured story this week on Storyville App
20 May 2015The link to the Storyville App site is here.
Refund is on the Longlist for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize
29 Apr 2015You can see the entire list of books here.
“Like Normal People” is recommended by Meg Wolitzer in O magazine
14 Apr 2015In the May issue of O magazine, Meg Wolitzer is one of 15 authors recommending 
a book that should be rediscovered; she chose Like Normal People. You can read her recommendation here.
Interview about “Refund” in Shelf Unbound magazine
12 Apr 2015The February/March issue of Shelf Unbound Magazine features an interview with me about Refund. You can read the interview here.
Wilmington Star-News on Refund
11 Apr 2015Ben Steelman of the Wilmington Star-News writes about the terrific reviews for Refund. I’ll be a guest on the Prologue show on WHQR Monday, April 13. You can read the article here.
“Refund” is on Ebook Friendly’s list of best story collections to read in 2015.
06 Apr 2015You can read the list of recommended story collections here.
Refund is a NYTBR Editor’s Choice
27 Mar 2015“Refund” is New York Times Book Review “Editor’s Choice.” for the March 29 issue.
New York Times Book Review reviews “Refund”
20 Mar 2015“Money is ostensibly the fuel that powers Karen E. Bender’s new collection “Refund”…but Bender’s subtler preoccupation is the eroding effect of emotional want…Bender understands worlds about marriage and emotional need.” You can read the whole review here.
Live from Prairie Lights!
20 Mar 2015My reading on March 4 at Iowa City’s wonderful Prairie Lights bookstore is posted here.
Refund is listed in The Week magazine
25 Feb 2015Refund is included in The Week magazine, noted among books exploring the “power of money.” 
Refund is an LA Times bestseller!
25 Feb 2015Refund is number 5 on the Los Angeles Times Bestseller list for the week of February 15th. The list is here.
Los Angeles Times reviews Refund
23 Jan 2015Meredith Maran writes in the Los Angeles Times: “Each of the “Refund” stories is an impeccably constructed miniature, a ship in a bottle that makes the reader wonder how the author got all that detail, all that craft, into such a small container. Taken as a whole, the collection is a 13-stop journey into some richly imagined worlds…Bender’s willingness to go deep, to burrow down into what’s right and wrong about 21st century America and Americans is a mirror that draws us in and does not allow us to look away.” You can read the whole review here.