Kristen Arnett (born December 16, 1980) is an American fiction author and essayist. Her debut novel, ''Mostly Dead Things'', was a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' bestseller.

Early life and education

Arnett was born and raised in

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

, where she attended Winter Park High School. She graduated from

Rollins College Rollins College is a Liberal arts college, private liberal arts college in Winter Park, Florida. It was founded in November 1885 and has about 30 undergraduate majors and several master's programs. Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institut ...

with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in English and received her

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

library and information science Library and information science (LIS)Library and Information Sciences is the name used in the Dewey Decimal Classification for class 20 from the 18th edition (1971) to the 22nd edition (2003). are two interconnected disciplines that deal with inf ...

from

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

. Arnett was a fellow in the Lambda Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices in 2013.

Career

Arnett was a

librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...

and the Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law at Barry University. She is a columnist for ''

Literary Hub ''Literary Hub'' or ''LitHub'' is a daily literary website that was launched in 2015 by Grove Atlantic president and publisher Morgan Entrekin, American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame editor Terry McDonell, and '' Electric Literatur ...

'' and was selected as a Shearing Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute for the spring 2020 semester.

Writing

Her first collection of short fiction, ''Felt in the Jaw'', was published by Split Lip Press and received the 2017 Coil Book Award. Arnett is a self-described "

7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc. is an American convenience store chain, headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven-Eleven Japan, which in turn is owned by the retail holdings company Seven & I Holdings. The chain was founde ...

scholar" and celebrated the debut of ''Felt in the Jaw'' at a 7-Eleven store in Orlando. The short story collection focuses on living as a

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. Arnett's debut novel, ''Mostly Dead Things'', which was published by Tin House in June 2019, was a ''New York Times'' bestseller and received critical acclaim. The novel was heralded by literary critic

Parul Sehgal Parul Sehgal (born ) is an American literary critic. She worked as an editor at NPR and '' The New York Times Book Review'', and later was one of the book critics at the ''New York Times''. She was a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'' from 2021 ...

as her "song of the summer" and by ''

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 ...

'''s book critic Katy Waldman as one of the best books of 2019. The book features an openly

main character who runs her family's

taxidermy Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body by mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proces ...

shop after her father dies by

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

. Arnett's novel, ''With Teeth'', was published by

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...

in 2022. Arnett's stories have appeared in online and print publications including ''Guernica'' magazine, '' The North American Review,'' '' Oprah Magazine'', and ''Gay Magazine.'' Her essays have been published in various venues including '' The Rumpus,'' '' Electric Literature,'' and '' Orlando Weekly.'' Arnett's third novel, ''Stop Me If You've Heard This One'', was published in March 2025 by Riverhead Books.

"Marvin" tweet

Arnett's Twitter feed became a case study in how corporations use Twitter when in 2018 she tweeted, "This morning at 7-eleven I saw a lizard next to the coffee maker and the cashier said 'no worries that's just Marvin, he likes the smell.'"

's official Twitter account replied to the tweet, which ultimately garnered over 350,000 likes, asking "Oh no! Can you DM us with the store location you visited so we can check in on Marvin? Thank you!" to which Arnett replied "no way I'm not gonna narc on my buddy." Screengrabs of the exchange have been widely reposted as a classic piece of

digital culture Internet culture refers to culture developed and maintained among frequent and active users of the Internet (also known as netizens) who primarily communicate with one another as members of online communities; that is, a culture whose influence ...

and have appeared in the so-called Internet Hall of Fame. When a monitor lizard visited a convenience store in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand in 2021 and started climbing up the shelves heading toward the ceiling, the video was posted to Twitter and a user helpfully replied, "That's just Marvin, he likes the smell."

Personal life

Arnett married Kayla Upadhyaya in 2024.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arnett, Kristen 1980 births Living people Writers from Orlando, Florida Rollins College alumni Florida State University alumni Librarians from Florida American women librarians American LGBTQ writers LGBTQ people from Florida 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers