Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (born February 14, 1972) is an American writer, of Chinese descent. She previously taught writing and literature in the graduate MFA writing program at

Otis College of Art and Design Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California, United States. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aero ...

until 2015. She lives in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, California, with her husband and daughter.

Biography

Sarah Shun-lien Bynum was born on February 14, 1972, in Houston, Texas. Her brother is musician Taylor Ho Bynum. Bynum is a graduate of

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

and the

University of Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a graduate-level creative writing program. At 89 years, it is the oldest writing program offering a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in the United States. Its acceptance rate is between 2. ...

Career

Fairy tales are a common theme in many of her works. Bynum describes fairy tales by saying that "they always walk that line between wonder and darkness." ''Madeleine is Sleeping'' was published by Harcourt in 2004, was a finalist for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

, and winner of the

Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize The Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize is a literary award presented annually for the "best book-length work of prose fiction" by an American woman. The award has been given by the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women's Studies and the Depar ...

. Her short stories, including excerpts from her new novel, have appeared in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', ''

Tin House ''Tin House'' is an American literary magazine and book publisher based in Portland, Oregon, and New York City. History Portland publisher Win McCormack originally conceived the idea for a literary magazine called ''Tin House'' in the summer ...

'', ''Triquarterly'', ''The Georgia Review'', '' Alaska Quarterly Review'', and in '' Best American Short Stories''. Her second novel, ''Ms. Hempel Chronicles'', was published in September 2008 and was a finalist for the

PEN/Faulkner Award The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living Americans, Green Card holders or permanent residents. The winner receives US$15,000 and each of ...

in 2009. In a 2009 book review of ''Ms. Hempel Chronicles'' published in the Sunday book review of ''The New York Times'', Josh Emmons notes that Bynum's "prose remains nimble and entertaining, a model of quiet control well suited to its subject" and that the "deftness with which s. Hempelobserves and describes her world and its inhabitants is so engaging that for all its circumspection and regrettable lacunae, “Ms. Hempel Chronicles” works as an account of how nostalgia — both for what was and might have been — can generate a thousand mercies." In 2010, Bynum was named one of ''The New Yorker''s top "20 Under 40" fiction writers in which the editors note her works "offer idiosyncratic, voice-driven narratives." In 2017, she was featured in an interview in ''The New Yorker'' on surviving adolescence and social media.

Awards

* 2004:

for ''Madeleine is Sleeping'' * 2005:

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, ...

for Fiction * 2020: Finalist for

The Story Prize The Story Prize is an annual book award established in 2004 that honors the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction with a $20,000 cash award. Each of two runners-up receives $5,000. Eligible books must be written in English and first ...

Works

Books

* *

Anthologies

* *

Short stories

*
Accomplice
" ''The Georgia Review''. Spring 2003. *
Creep
" ''TriQuarterly''. Spring 2005. * * *
These Are Mysteries
. ''Gulf Coast''. Winter/Spring 2011. * "Christmas, 1990". ''The Cincinnati Review''. Winter 2011. * *
"Likes"
''The New Yorker''. 9 October 2017.

Essays

* on

Angela Carter Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...

's ''The Bloody Chamber'' for ''Amazon: Writers Under the Influence''. Fall 2004. * on

Edmund White Edmund Valentine White III (January 13, 1940 – June 3, 2025) was an American novelist, memoirist, playwright, biographer, and essayist. A pioneering figure in LGBTQ and especially gay literature after the Stonewall riots, he wrote with ra ...

's ''A Boy's Own Story'' for
A New Literary History of America
'. September 2009. * on

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (; March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophical ...

's ''Goodbye, Columbus'' for
Ninth Letter
'. Spring/Summer 2010.

Book reviews

of Gautam Malkani's novel ''Londonstani''. ''The Washington Post''. June 2006.

Readings

* Reading of
Extra
by

Yiyun Li Yiyun Li (Chinese: 李翊雲 - ''Li Yiyun'') (born November 4, 1972) is a Chinese-born writer and professor who has lived and worked in the United States since entering graduate school. She writes exclusively in English. Her short stories and no ...

with Deborah Treisman for ''The New Yorker'', 2017.

References

External links

Profile at The Whiting FoundationSarah Shun-lien Bynum's personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bynum, Sarah Shun-Lien 1972 births 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American women writers American anthologists American writers of Chinese descent American women academics American women novelists American women short story writers Brown University alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Living people Otis College of Art and Design faculty PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners Place of birth missing (living people) Women anthologists Writers from Houston