Laura van den Berg (born May 31, 1983) is an American fiction writer. She is the author of five works of fiction. Her first two collections of short stories were each shortlisted for the

Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award __NOTOC__ The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award—named in honour of Frank O'Connor, who devoted much of his work to the form—was an international literary award presented for the best short story collection. It was presented betwe ...

, in 2010 and 2014. In 2021, she was awarded the Strauss Livings Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters and a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

Biography

Laura van den Berg was born and raised in Florida. She has a BA 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 ...

(2005) and an M.F.A. from

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It also maintains campuses in Los Angeles and Well, Limburg, Netherlands (Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of Public Speaking, o ...

. Her stories have been published in ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...

McSweeney's McSweeney's Publishing is an American nonprofit publishing house founded by Dave Eggers in 1998 and headquartered in San Francisco. The executive director is Amanda Uhle. McSweeney's first publication was the literary journal'' Timothy McSw ...

, BOMB,

Virginia Quarterly Review The ''Virginia Quarterly Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established in 1925 by James Southall Wilson, at the request of University of Virginia president E. A. Alderman. This ''"National Journal of Literature and Discussio ...

, Conjunctions'', ''American Short Fiction'', ''

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Bost ...

'', ''Glimmer Train'' and ''One Story''. Her first collection of short stories, ''What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us,'' was published in 2009, and her second collection, '' The Isle of Youth'', was published in 2013. A third short story collection, ''I Hold a Wolf by the Ears,'' was published in 2020. Her other books include two novels, ''Find Me'' (2015) and ''The Third Hotel'' (2018), which was a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award. Van den Berg has also published a chapbook of

flash fiction Flash fiction is a brief fictional narrative that still offers character and plot development. Identified varieties, many of them defined by word count, include the For sale: baby shoes, never worn, six-word story; the 280-character story (also kn ...

, ''There Will Be No More Good Nights Without Good Nights'' (2012). Van den Berg lives in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

with her husband,

Paul Yoon Paul Yoon (born 1980) is an American fiction writer. In 2010 National Book Foundation named him a 5 Under 35 honoree. Early life and education Yoon's grandfather was a North Korean refugee who resettled in South Korea, where he later founded an ...

. She is currently a senior lecturer at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in the English Department.

Awards and honors

*2010

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 ...

longlist for ''What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us'' *2010

shortlist for ''What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us'' *2014

shortlist for '' The Isle of Youth'' *2014

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

Rosenthal Family Foundation Award winner for ''The Isle of Youth'' *2019 Young Lions Fiction Award shortlist *2021 American Academy of Arts and Letter
Strauss Livings Award
*2021

Selected works

*''What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us'',

Dzanc Books Dzanc Books is an American independent press book publisher. It is a non-profit 501(c)(3) private foundation. Michelle Dotter is publisher and editor-in-chief. Background Dzanc Books was founded in 2006 by Steven Gillis, a lawyer turned novelis ...

(2009) *''There Will Be No More Good Nights Without Good Nights'', Origami Zoo Press / Bull City Press (2012) *'' The Isle of Youth'',

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer P ...

(2013) *''Find Me'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2015) *''The Third Hotel'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2018) *''I Hold a Wolf by the Ears'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2020) *''State of Paradise: A Novel'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2024)

References

External links

* 1983 births Living people American women short story writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers Novelists from Florida Emerson College alumni American women novelists Rollins College alumni 21st-century American short story writers Harvard University faculty American women academics O. Henry Award winners {{US-story-writer-stub