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George Saunders

Biography

George Saunders

George Saunders is the author of 11 books, including the novel LINCOLN IN THE BARDO, which won the Man Booker Prize, and the story collections PASTORALIA and TENTH OF DECEMBER, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has received fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 2006 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2013 he was awarded the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and was included in Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.

George Saunders

Books by George Saunders

by George Saunders - Fiction, Short Stories

In his first collection of short stories since TENTH OF DECEMBER, George Saunders explores ideas of power, ethics and justice and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. “Love Letter” is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the (not-too-distant, all-too-believable) future. “Ghoul” is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his reality. And “My House” --- in a mere seven pages --- comes to terms with the haunting nature of unfulfilled dreams and the inevitability of decay.

by George Saunders - Essays, Literary Criticism, Nonfiction

For the last 20 years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A SWIM IN A POND IN THE RAIN, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times.

by George Saunders - Fiction

Fox 8 has always been known as the daydreamer in his pack, the one his fellow foxes regard with a knowing snort and a roll of the eyes. That is, until he develops a unique skill: He teaches himself to speak “Yuman” by hiding in the bushes outside a house and listening to children’s bedtime stories. The power of language fuels his abundant curiosity about people --- even after “danjer” arrives in the form of a new shopping mall that cuts off his food supply, sending Fox 8 on a harrowing quest to help save his pack.

by George Saunders - Fiction, Historical Fiction

It’s February 1862, and the Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved 11-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. The boy finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state --- called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo --- a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul.

by George Saunders - Fiction, Short Stories

The 10 stories in George Saunders’s latest collection demonstrate why he is considered a modern master of short fiction. From “Victory Lap,” the tale of an attempted abduction, to “The Semplica Girl Diaries,” in which families employ Asian women as live garden ornaments, Saunders’s gift for inventive plots and vivid detail, and his ability to home in on moments that quickly define character, have never been used to more stunning effect. Believe the hype.