Ben Lerner
Lerner in 2015
Born	(1979-02-04)February 4, 1979 (age 46) Topeka, Kansas, U.S.
Education	Brown University (BA,MFA)
Genre	Poetry, novels, essays
Notable awards	Fulbright Scholar Guggenheim Fellowship Believer Book Award MacArthur Fellowship

Benjamin S. Lerner (born February 4, 1979)^[1] is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. The recipient of fellowships from theFulbright,Guggenheim, andMacArthur Foundations, Lerner has been a finalist for theNational Book Award for Poetry, theNational Book Critics Circle Award in fiction, and thePulitzer Prize for Fiction, among many other honors.^[2][3] Lerner teaches atBrooklyn College, where he was named a Distinguished Professor of English in 2016.^[4]

Lerner was born and raised inTopeka, Kansas. His mother is the clinical psychologistHarriet Lerner.^[5] He is a 1997 graduate ofTopeka High School, where he participated indebate andforensics, winning the 1997National Forensic League National Tournament in International Extemporaneous Speaking.^[6] AtBrown University he studied with poetC. D. Wright and earned aB.A. inpolitical theory and anMFA in poetry.^[7]

Lerner was awarded theHayden Carruth prize for his cycle of 52sonnets,The Lichtenberg Figures.^[8]In 2004Library Journal named it one of the year's 12 best books of poetry.

In 2003 Lerner traveled on aFulbright Scholarship to Madrid, Spain, where he wrote his second book of poetry,Angle of Yaw, which was published in 2006. It was named a finalist for theNational Book Award. His third poetry collection,Mean Free Path, was published in 2010.

Lerner's first novel,Leaving the Atocha Station, published in 2011,^[9] won theBeliever Book Award^[10] and was a finalist for theLos Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction (The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction^{[broken anchor]}) and theNew York Public Library'sYoung Lions Fiction Award. Writing inThe Guardian,Geoff Dyer called it "a work so luminously original in style and form as to seem like a premonition, a comet from the future."^[11]

Excerpts of Lerner's second novel,10:04, won theTerry Southern Prize fromThe Paris Review.^[12] Writing in theLos Angeles Review of Books,Maggie Nelson called10:04 a "near perfect piece of literature."^[13]The New York Times named10:04 one of the best books of the 21st century.^[14]

The New York Times Book Review called Lerner's 2019 novelThe Topeka School "a high-water mark in recent American fiction."^[15] Giles Harvey, inThe New York Times Magazine, called it "the best book yet by the most talented writer of his generation." TheNew York Times also named it one of the ten best books of the year.^[16] Lerner's essays, art criticism, and literary criticism have appeared inHarper's Magazine, theLondon Review of Books,The New York Review of Books, andThe New Yorker, among other publications.^[17]The Topeka School, which won theLos Angeles Times Book Prize, was a finalist for the2020Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.^[18]

In 2023, Lerner published his fourth full-length book of poetry, both verse and prose poems,The Lights. InThe New York Times,Srikanth Reddy wrote: "It takes a poet to invent characters who argue that 'the voice must be sung into existence.' It takes a novelist to honor so many perspectives, histories and intimacies in one book. The poet/novelist ofThe Lights enlarges Baudelaire’s experiments in prose poetry into a multistory dream house for contemporary American readers." InThe New Yorker, Kamran Javadizadeh calledThe Lights "world-bridging poetry", "uncannily beautiful", and "exceedingly lovely".^[19]

In 2008, Lerner began editing poetry forCritical Quarterly, a British scholarly publication.^[20] In 2016 he became the first poetry editor atHarper's.^[21] He has taught atCalifornia College of the Arts and theUniversity of Pittsburgh, and in 2010 joined the faculty of the MFA program atBrooklyn College.^[22] He was an original signatory of the manifesto "Refusing Complicity in Israel's Literary Institutions", which endorses a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, including publishers and literary festivals.^[23]

• 2003 – Hayden Carruth Award^[24]
• 2003–2004 –Fulbright Fellowship^[25]
• 2006 – Finalist,National Book Award^[26] forAngle of Yaw.
• 2006 – Finalist, Northern California Book Awards forAngle of Yaw^[27]
• 2007 –Kansas Notable Book Award forAngle of Yaw
• 2010–2011 – Howard Foundation Fellowship^[28]
• 2011 – Preis der Stadt Münster für internationale Poesie^[29]
• 2011 – Finalist,Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction^[30]
• 2012 – Finalist,Young Lions Fiction Award of theNew York Public Library^[31]
• 2012 –Believer Book Award^[10]
• 2012 – Finalist,William Saroyan International Prize for Writing^[32]
• 2012 – Finalist, PEN/Bingham Award^[33]
• 2013 – Finalist, James Tait Black Memorial Prize^[34]
• 2013 – Guggenheim Fellowship^[17]
• 2014 – Terry Southern Fiction Prize fromThe Paris Review^[12]
• 2014 – Finalist,Folio Prize^[35]
• 2017 – named one ofGranta's best young American novelists
• 2015–2020 Winner,MacArthur Foundation Fellowship
• 2019 – Finalist,Folio Prize
• 2019 – Finalist,National Book Critics Circle Award
• 2019 Winner,Kansas Notable Book Award
• 2019 – Winner,Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction
• 2020 – Finalist,Pulitzer Prize for Fiction^[3]
• 2024 – Long listed forThe Griffin Prize for poetry

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(September 2019)

• The Lichtenberg figures. Port Townsend:Copper Canyon Press. 2004.
• Angle of Yaw. Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press. 2006.ISBN 9781556592461.
• Mean Free Path. Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press. 2010.ISBN 9781619320741.
• "Untitled (Triptych)".Harper's. Vol. 331, no. 1983. August 2015.
• No Art. 2016. Collection of previous three volumes.
• "Also Known as Hurtsickle, Cyani Flower, and Bachelor's Button".New York Review of Books. Vol. LXIII, no. 10. June 9, 2016.
• "The Pistil".New York Review of Books. Vol. LXV, no. 11. June 28, 2018.
• "Les Marronniers".New York Review of Books. Vol. LXVI, no. 14. September 26, 2019.
• "The Rose".New York Review of Books. Vol. LXVII, no. 12. July 23, 2020.
• "The Son".New York Review of Books. Vol. LXVII, no. 18. November 19, 2020.
• "The Lights".New York Review of Books. Vol. LXIX, no. 12. July 21, 2022.
• "Meridian Response".New York Review of Books. Vol. LXVIII, no. 12. July 22, 2021.
• The Lights. New York:Farrar, Straus, and Giroux 2023.
• "The Rescue".New York Review of Books. Vol. LXX, no. 14. September 21, 2023.
• "National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program".New York Review of Books. Vol. LXXII, no. 8. May 15, 2025.

• "The Hofmann Wobble: Wikipedia and the problem of historical memory".Harper's Magazine. Vol. 347, no. 2083. December 2023. pp. 27–32.

• "The Golden Vanity".The New Yorker. June 11, 2012.
• "The Polish Rider".The New Yorker. May 20, 2016.
• "Ross Perot and China".The New Yorker. May 20, 2019.
• "The Media".The New Yorker. April 13, 2020.
• "Café Loup".The New Yorker. August 29, 2022.
• "The Ferry".The New Yorker. April 3, 2023.

• Leaving the Atocha Station,Coffee House Press, 2011.ISBN 9781566892926
• 10:04,Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.ISBN 978-0865478107^[36]
• The Topeka School,Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019.ISBN 9780374277789
• Transcription,Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2026.ISBN 9780374618599^[37]

• "Contest of Words".Harper's. Vol. 325, no. 1949. October 2012.
• The Hatred of Poetry. FSG Originals, 2016.
• "The Hofmann Wobble".Harper's. December 2023.
• "Cardiography".New York Review of Books. Vol. LXXII, no. 17. November 6, 2025.

• Keeping / the window open: Interviews, Statements, Alarms, Excursions. On Keith andRosmarie Waldrop. Wave Books, 2019.

• Blossom. Mack Books, 2015. WithThomas Demand.
• The Polish Rider. Mack Books, 2018. With Anna Ostoya.
• The Snows of Venice. Spector Books, 2018. WithAlexander Kluge
• Gold Custody. Mack Books, 2021. WithBarbara Bloom
• The Clichés. Song Cave Editions, 2022. WithR. H. Quaytman

• An essay aboutThe Topeka School and Lerner's other novels atHarper's
• "Cafe Loup", a story by Lerner atThe New Yorker
• The Ferry, a story by Lerner atThe New Yorker
• An excerpt fromThe Topeka School atThe New Yorker
• Lerner's page and theMacArthur Foundation
• Lerner's page for theGriffin Poetry Prize
• An editorial by Lerner against funding cuts in higher education
• Interview with Ariana Reines inBomb Magazine
• Lerner's page at theGuggenheim Foundation
• Lerner's National Book Award pageArchived 2011-07-16 at theWayback Machine
• Interview with Lerner inThe New Yorker
• Interview with Lerner inThe Believer
• Interview with Lerner inBookforum
• Interview with Lerner inThe Huffington Post
• Audio of Lerner poetry reading
• "My First Time" interview with Lerner byThe Paris Review

• 1979 births
• Living people
• 21st-century American male writers
• 21st-century American novelists
• 21st-century American poets
• American male novelists
• American male poets
• Believer Book Award winners
• Brooklyn College faculty
• Brown University alumni
• Harper's Magazine people
• MacArthur Fellows
• The New York Review of Books people
• The New Yorker people
• Novelists from New York (state)
• Novelists from Pennsylvania
• University of Pittsburgh faculty
• Writers from Topeka, Kansas
• Topeka High School alumni

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• Incomplete lists from September 2019