Karen Thompson Walker was born and raised in San Diego, California, where The Age of Miracles is set. She studied English and creative writing at UCLA, where she wrote for the UCLA Daily Bruin. After college, she worked as a newspaper reporter in the San Diego area before moving to New York City to attend the Columbia University MFA program. A former book editor at Simon & Schuster, she wrote The Age of Miracles in the mornings before work—sometimes while riding the subway. She is the recipient of the 2011 Sirenland Fellowship as well as a Bomb Magazine fiction prize. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband.
The Morningside (2024) Téa Obreht "The Morningside is like nothing I;ve read - at once playful and profound, harrowing and tender, a sparklingly original story of coming of age in a broken world."
Singer Distance (2022) Ethan Chatagnier "Imaginative and brainy, this is a beautifully written book about one of my favorite subjects: extraordinary possibilities."
Tell Me an Ending (2022) Jo Harkin "Clever and imaginative, Tell Me an Ending is a riveting and thought-provoking exploration of one of our most precious and fragile powers: the ability to remember the moments of our lives."
Manywhere (2022) Morgan Thomas "Sparkling, imaginative, and inventive, these stories powerfully honor the lives of people attempting to do something that is as difficult as it is profound: to live according to their own essential rhythms, to the longings of their true, authentic selves. Rich in beauty and insight, and generous in spirit, this work feels genuinely, thrillingly new."
The Sisters Sweet (2021) Elizabeth Weiss "At once intimate and epic, The Sisters Sweet is an ambitious, intricately constructed, and immensely satisfying story about a family of performers—both onstage and off. This is a deeply immersive novel about the lives—and aspirations—of women. I loved it."
Agatha of Little Neon (2021) Claire Luchette "Claire Luchette is a dazzlingly gifted new voice, a master at balancing a sneaky deadpan wit with deep and genuine pathos. Agatha of Little Neon brilliantly mixes the sacred and the transgressive, the solemn and the absurd, and the profound, contradictory longings for belonging and independence. This book is a moving meditation on how to be a woman in the world-and how to be a human."
Famous Men Who Never Lived (2019) K Chess "With an eerie and ingenious premise, K Chess explores in a fresh way the most universal of human experiences: loss, regret, and the longing for what might have been. With its refugees from a parallel universe, this inventive book does what only fiction can do: describes an impossible world in order to more clearly show us our own."
Bangkok Wakes to Rain (2019) Pitchaya Sudbanthad "Beautifully textured and rich with a sense of place . . . compellingly captures not only the long arcs of these lives - but also the smallest moments, and how those moments linger in memory, how they haunt."
The Futures (2017) Anna Pitoniak "Tender and wise, The Futures feels like a true story. Pitoniak's voice is stylish and authentic, and perfect for exploring this rich territory: youth and love and New York City."
Cutting Teeth (2014) Julia Fierro "Fierro's writing feels like real life. She captures the anxiety of ourtimes with authority, insight, and humour."
