The latest updates.
Grateful to Carolyn Ferrell for her blurb for The Words of Dr. L.
“Karen Bender’s brilliant new collection of stories is devastating in its human truths yet not without hope. In worlds where nouns are capitalized (Confusion, Separation, Protection) and empathy is under siege, these stories provide the answer to Andromeda Romano-Lax’s question: How can fiction predict a future that’s already happening? Motherhood circles around climate change, reproductive rights orbit autocracy, love swirls around pestilence and vicious patriarchy. Yet Bender’s characters never lose sight of the urgency of resilience and change. These stories ensure that we never stop asking the questions that will save us. The Words of Dr. L is a true literary masterwork.” —Carolyn Ferrell, author of Dear Miss Metropolitan
My third collection, The Words of Dr. L, appears on Lithub’s list of Most Anticipated Books in 2025. You can see the full list here.
I’m excited to share the cover for my third collection, The Words of Dr. L and Other Stories, to be published by Counterpoint Press in May, 2025. Here is a link to see the beautiful cover and find out more about the book. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/772198/the-words-of-dr-l-by-karen-bender/
Joumana Khatib discusses my collection “Refund” in this article about books about money (in time for tax day.) You can read the article here.
I’m excited to have a new story, “The Extra Child,” in this issue of Image Journal. You can read the story here.
My novel, “Like Normal People,” was included in Susan Straight’s map of 1,001 novels to read to find the real America. You can see the list here. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-05-28/american-novels-1001-literary-geography-map-states
I spoke with writer Muhammed Sheeraz Dasti about the role of image in writing fiction for the newspaper The News on Sunday in Pakistan. You can read the interview here
My story “The Elevator,” which appeared in Guernica and in my collection The New Order, is included in an anthology, “Love in the Time of Time’s Up,” published by Tortoise Books. You can buy the anthology here.
Word for Word theater, at Z Space in San Francisco, will perform my story “Eternal Love,” on September 4. This will be the first time my story has been performed with neurodiverse actors. The story is part of my novel, “Like Normal People.” More information here.
I’m thrilled to be joining the MFA program at SUNY Stony Brook as a Visiting Associate Professor, part-time. You can find out more about the program here. https://www.stonybrook.edu/southampton/mfa/cwl/
The Yale Review published a new story, “Messengers,” in the summer 2022 issue. You can read the story here.
Bookriot included my story “Where to Hide in a Synagogue,” in a list of 34 of the “Best Short Stories of All Time.” You can read the list of all the stories here: https://bookriot.com/best-short-stories-of-all-time/.
I’m excited to teach a course, “From Realism to Surrealism to Speculative: Developing Strangeness in Your Work” for the MFA program at SUNY Stony Brook this spring. Details here. https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/southampton/mfa/cwl/courses_spring_2022
My short story, “The Shame Exchange,” which first appeared in The Yale Review, will be reprinted in a new anthology, “Twenty Twenty: A Stories on Stage Sacramento Anthology,” including stories inspired by the year 2020. You can buy the anthology here.
I’m excited to participate in the Drexel University Literary Festival on May 18, via Zoom. I’ll be doing a reading at 12:30 EST, and then doing a short lecture at 2 pm. Here’s an article about it and the Zoom link.