Karen Russell

Karen Russell (born July 10, 1981) is an American novelist and short story writer. Her debut novel, Swamplandia!, was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In 2009, the National Book Foundation named Russell a 5 Under 35 honoree. She is also the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant".

Early life and education Russell was born in Miami, Florida, on July 10, 1981.

Career Russell's stories have been featured in The Best American Short Stories, Conjunctions, Granta, The New Yorker, Oxford American, and Zoetrope.

She was named a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" young writer honoree at the November 2009 ceremony for her first short story collection, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. The book also won Russell the Bard Fiction Prize in 2011. The book was a finalist for the 2007 Young Lions Fiction Award.

In 2011, Russell was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction.

Russell's second book and first novel, Swamplandia!, about a family of alligator wrestlers and their shabby amusement park in the Everglades, was long-listed for the 2011 Orange Prize. The novel was also included in The New York Times "10 Best Books of 2011" and won the New York Public Library's 2012 Young Lions Fiction Award. Swamplandia! was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; however, none of the three finalists received enough votes, and no prize was awarded.

Russell's second collection of short stories, Vampires in the Lemon Grove, was published by Vintage Contemporaries in February 2013. Her third short story collection, Orange World and Other Stories, was released in May 2019.

Her short story "The Hox River Window," published in Zoetrope: All-Story, won the 2012 National Magazine Award for fiction. She is the recipient of the Mary Ellen von der Heyden Berlin Prize and was awarded a fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin for Spring 2012. "Reeling for the Empire" won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novelette of 2012. In 2013, Russell received a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant."

In 2010, Russell was a visiting writer at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She later served as an artist in residence at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY. In Fall 2013, Russell was a distinguished guest teacher of creative writing in the MFA program at Rutgers University-Camden. Russell held the Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at Texas State University’s MFA program from 2017 through 2020. She has also taught at Columbia University, Bryn Mawr College, and University of California, Irvine. It was shortlisted for the 2025 National Book Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. It has been nominated for the 2025 Endeavour Award for a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book by a Pacific Northwest writer, award ceremony/decision in October 2026.

In 2026, Russell started a job with Stanford University as a creative writing professor. She currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.