Karen Joy Fowler

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Karen Joy Fowler
Fowler at the 2013 Texas Book Festival.
Born	Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis

Karen Joy Fowler is an American author of science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction. Her work often centers on the nineteenth century, the lives of women, and alienation.

She is best known as the author of the best-selling novel The Jane Austen Book Club that was made into a movie of the same name.

Biography

Fowler was born February 7, 1950, in Bloomington, Indiana, and spent the first eleven years of her life there. Her family then moved to Palo Alto, California. Fowler attended the University of California, Berkeley, and majored in political science. After having a child during the last year of her master's program, she spent seven years devoted to child-raising. Feeling restless, Fowler decided to take a dance class, and then a creative writing class at the University of California, Davis. Realizing that she was never going to make it as a dancer, Fowler began to publish science fiction stories, making a name for herself with the short story "Recalling Cinderella" (1985) in L Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 1 (1985) and Artificial Things (1986), a collection of short stories.

Writing career

She began publishing sf with "Recalling Cinderella" in L Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol I (anth 1985) edited by Algis Budrys

Her first novel, Sarah Canary (1991), was published to critical acclaim. The novel involves a group of people alienated by nineteenth century America experiencing a peculiar kind of first contact. One character is Chinese American, another putatively mentally ill, a third a feminist, and lastly Sarah herself, an extraterrestrial. Fowler meant for Sarah Canary to "read like a science fiction novel to a science fiction reader" and "like a mainstream novel to a mainstream reader." Fowler's intentions were to leave room for the readers’ own interpretation of the text.^[1]

James Tiptree, Jr. Award

Fowler also collaborated with

Her 1998 collection, Black Glass, won a World Fantasy Award, and her 2010 collection What I Didn't See, and Other Stories also won a World Fantasy Award.

Her 2004 novel The Jane Austen Book Club become a critical and popular success including being on The New York Times bestsellers list. Although it is not a science fiction or fantasy work, science fiction does play an integral part to the novel's plot.^[3]

Fowler was an instructor at the Clarion Workshop 2007 in San Diego. She was one of the two Guests of Honor at Readercon 2007.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, she won the

Fowler's novel, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (2013) won the Pen/Faulkner Award for 2014, and has been nominated for a 2014 Nebula Award as well. It was shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize.^[5][6]

She received a World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2020 convention.^[7]

Fowler's most recent novel, Booth, was longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.

"What I Didn't See"

Fowler was inspired to write her short story "What I Didn't See" after doing research about chimpanzees for her book We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. During her research, Fowler came across an essay by Donna Haraway which discusses a 1920 expedition that was carried out by the curator of the New York National Museum of History. One of the men on the expedition wanted a woman in the group to kill a gorilla in order to ultimately protect these species. He reasoned that if women could carry out this action, gorillas would no longer be seen as a fearsome animal, and the thrill of killing them would be gone. Fowler's reaction was one of appalled interest, and she was inspired to write "What I Didn't See" by these findings. It won the short story Nebula Award in 2003.^[1]

Awards and honors

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (March 2015)

• 1985 Published Winner for "Recalling Cinderella," a new writer short story winner in L. Ron Hubbard Presents: Writer's of the Future Vol 1 edited by Algis Budrys
• 1998 World Fantasy Award for Black Glass, a collection of short stories.
• 2004 Nebula Award for "What I Didn't See", a short story.
• 2008 Nebula Award for "Always", a short story.
• 2009 Shirley Jackson Award for "The Pelican Bar", a short story
• 2010 World Fantasy Award for What I Didn't See, and Other Stories, a collection of short stories.
• 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, a novel.
• 2014 Man Booker Prize Short List for We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, a novel.
• 2014
  Specsavers National Book Awards "International Author of the Year" winner for We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves^[8]
• 2017 World Fantasy Award for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016 for Best Anthology (nominee)
• 2022 Man Booker Prize Long List for Booth, a novel

Bibliography

Novels

• Sarah Canary (1991) - novel concerning a mysterious woman in 1873 Pacific Northwest.
• The War of the Roses (1991) - Chapter book publication of the novelette.
• The Sweetheart Season (1996) - Fantasy novel about the Sweetwheat Sweethearts, a female baseball team from 1947 Minnesota.
• Sister Noon (2001)
  ISBN 9780399147500
  - Novel set in 1890s San Francisco.
• ISBN 9780399151613 - Six members of an early 21st-century book club discuss Jane Austen
  books.
• Wit's End (Putnam, 2008)
  ISBN 9780399154751
  - A young woman visits her godmother, one of America's most successful mystery writers.
• ISBN 9780399162091 - 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Winner, shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize
• Booth (Putnam, 2022)
  ISBN 9780593331439 - The story of the family of Shakespearean actors best known for their connection to Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth. Longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.^[9]