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George Saunders

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American writer (born 1958)
For other people named George Saunders, seeGeorge Saunders (disambiguation).

George Saunders
Saunders in 2023
Saunders in 2023
Born (1958-12-02)December 2, 1958 (age 67)
Occupation
  • Writer
  • journalist
  • college professor
LanguageEnglish
Education
Period1986–present[a]
Notable works
Notable awards
SpousePaula Redick[1]
Children2[2]
Website
www.georgesaundersbooks.com

George Saunders (born December 2, 1958) is an American writer. He is best known for his short stories and his novelLincoln in the Bardo (2017), which won theBooker Prize. Saunders' short stories have been published as several collections, includingCivilWarLand in Bad Decline (1996) andTenth of December: Stories (2013).

A professor atSyracuse University, Saunders won theNational Magazine Award for fiction in 1994, 1996, 2000, and 2004, and second prize in theO. Henry Awards in 1997. His first story collection,CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, was a finalist for the 1996PEN/Hemingway Award. In 2006, Saunders received aMacArthur Fellowship and won theWorld Fantasy Award for his short story "CommComm".[3]

His story collectionIn Persuasion Nation was a finalist forThe Story Prize in 2007. In 2013, he won thePEN/Malamud Award[4] and was a finalist for theNational Book Award.Tenth of December: Stories wonThe Story Prize for short-story collections[5] and the inaugural (2014)Folio Prize.[6][7]

Early life and education

[edit]

Saunders was born inAmarillo, Texas. He grew up inOak Forest, Illinois, nearChicago, attended St. Damian Catholic School and graduated fromOak Forest High School in Oak Forest, Illinois. He spent some of his early twenties working as a roofer in Chicago, a doorman in Beverly Hills, and aslaughterhouse knuckle-puller.[8][9] In 1981, he received a B.S. ingeophysical engineering fromColorado School of Mines inGolden, Colorado. Of his scientific background, Saunders has said, "any claim I might make to originality in my fiction is really just the result of this odd background: basically, just me working inefficiently, with flawed tools, in a mode I don't have sufficient background to really understand. Like if you put a welder to designing dresses."[10]

In 1988, he was awarded anM.F.A. in creative writing fromSyracuse University, where he worked withTobias Wolff.[11][12] At Syracuse, he met Paula Redick, a fellow writer, whom he married. Saunders recalled, "we [got] engaged in three weeks, a Syracuse Creative Writing Program record that, I believe, still stands".[1]

Of his influences,[11] Saunders has written:

I really love Russian writers, especially from the 19th and early 20th Century:Gogol,Tolstoy,Chekhov,Babel. I love the way they take on the big topics. I'm also inspired by a certain absurdist comic tradition that would include influences likeMark Twain,Daniil Kharms,Groucho Marx,Monty Python,Steve Martin,Jack Handey, etc. And then, on top of that, I love the strain of minimalist American fiction writing:Sherwood Anderson,Ernest Hemingway,Raymond Carver,Tobias Wolff.[13]

Career

[edit]

From 1989 to 1996, Saunders worked as atechnical writer andgeophysical engineer for Radian International, anenvironmental engineering firm inRochester, New York. He also worked for a time with anoil exploration crew inSumatra in the early 1980s.[9][14]

Since 1997, Saunders has been on the faculty ofSyracuse University, teachingcreative writing in the school'sMFA program in addition to writing fiction and nonfiction.[11][12][15] In 2006, he was awarded aGuggenheim Fellowship and a $500,000MacArthur Fellowship. He was a Visiting Writer atWesleyan University andHope College in 2010 and participated in Wesleyan's Distinguished Writers Series and Hope College's Visiting Writers Series. His nonfiction collection,The Braindead Megaphone, was published in 2007.[16]

Saunders's fiction often focuses on the absurdity ofconsumerism,corporate culture, and the role ofmass media. While multiple reviewers have noted his writing'ssatirical tone, his work also raises moral and philosophical questions. Thetragicomic element in his writing has earned Saunders comparisons toKurt Vonnegut, whose work has inspired him.[17]

Ben Stiller bought thefilm rights toCivilWarLand in Bad Decline in the late 1990s; as of 2007[update], the project was in development by Stiller's company,Red Hour Productions.[18] Saunders has also written afeature-lengthscreenplay based on his short story "Sea Oak".[19]

He also contributed a weekly column, "American Psyche", toThe Guardian's weekend magazine between 2006 and 2008.[20]

Saunders considered himself anObjectivist in his twenties but now views the philosophy unfavorably, likening it toneoconservatism.[21] He is a student ofNyingma Buddhism.[2]

Awards and honors

[edit]

Honors

[edit]

In 2001, Saunders received aLannan Literary Fellowship in Fiction from theLannan Foundation.[22]

In 2006, Saunders was awarded aGuggenheim Fellowship.[23] Also that year, he received aMacArthur Fellowship.[24]

In 2009, Saunders received an award from theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters.[25][26] In 2013,Time magazine named Saunders one of their100 most influential people. The authorMary Karr wrote forTime that "[f]or more than a decade, George Saunders has been the best short-story writer in English".[27] In 2014, he was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.[28]

Awards

[edit]
George Saunders receiving the National Book Foundation's 2025 Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (DCAL).

Saunders has won theNational Magazine Award for Fiction four times: in 1994, for "The 400-Pound CEO" (published inHarper's); in 1996, for "Bounty" (also published inHarper's); in 2000, for "The Barber's Unhappiness" (published inThe New Yorker); and in 2004, for "The Red Bow" (published inEsquire).[29] Saunders won second prize in the 1997O. Henry Awards for his short story "The Falls", initially published in the January 22, 1996, issue ofThe New Yorker.[30][31]

In 2013, Saunders won thePEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story.[32] His short-story collectionTenth of December was named one of the "10 Best Books of 2013" by the editors ofThe New York Times Book Review.[33] In a January 2013 cover story,The New York Times Magazine calledTenth of December "the best book you'll read this year".[34] One of the stories in the collection, "Home", was a 2011Bram Stoker Award finalist.[35]

In 2017, Saunders published his first novel,Lincoln in the Bardo, which won theBooker Prize and was aNew York Timesbestseller.

In 2025, the National Book Foundation presented its 2025 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (DCAL) to Saunders at the 76th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner on November 19, 2025.[36]

Literary awards
YearTitleAwardCategoryResultRef.
1994"The 400-Pound CEO"National Magazine AwardsFictionWon[29]
1996"Bounty"National Magazine AwardsFictionWon[29]
CivilWarLand in Bad DeclinePEN/Hemingway Award—Finalist[37]
1997"The Falls"O. Henry Awards—2nd prize[31]
2000"The Barber's Unhappiness"National Magazine AwardsFictionWon[29]
2003"The Red Bow"Bram Stoker AwardShort FictionNominated[38]
2004National Magazine AwardsFictionWon[29]
2006In Persuasion NationThe Story Prize—Shortlisted
"CommComm"World Fantasy AwardShort StoryWon[3]
2011"Home"Bram Stoker AwardShort FictionNominated[39]
2013Tenth of December: StoriesGoodreads Choice AwardFictionNominated—10th
The Story Prize—Won[40][41]
2014Folio Prize—Won[42][43]
National Book AwardFictionFinalist
2017Lincoln in the BardoGoodreads Choice AwardsHistorical FictionNominated
Man Booker Prize—Won[44]
Waterstones Book of the Year—Shortlisted[45]
2018Andrew Carnegie Medals for ExcellenceFictionShortlisted[46]
Audie AwardsAudiobook of the YearWon[47]
Chicago Tribune Heartland PrizeFictionWon[48]
Locus AwardFirst NovelFinalist—4th[49]
Premio Gregor von Rezzori—Won
2019International Dublin Literary Award—Shortlisted
Tähtivaeltaja Award—Nominated
2021A Swim in a Pond in the RainGoodreads Choice AwardsNon-FictionNominated
2022Liberation Day: StoriesBookTube PrizeFictionOctofinalist
Los Angeles Times Book PrizeRay Bradbury PrizeFinalist
2023—Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction—Won

Other honors

[edit]

Selected works

[edit]
This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(November 2017)

Story collections

[edit]

Novels

[edit]

Nonfiction

[edit]

Children's books

[edit]

Essays and reporting

[edit]

Anthologies

[edit]
  • Fakes: An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux-Lectures, Quasi-Letters, "Found" Texts, and Other Fraudulent Artifacts, edited by David Shields and Matthew Vollmer (2012)
  • Cappelens Forslags Conversational Lexicon Volume II, edited by Pil Cappelen Smith, published by Cappelens Forslag (2016) ISBN 978-82-999643-4-0

Interviews

[edit]

Stories

[edit]
TitlePublicationCollected in
"A Lack of Order in the Floating Object Room"Northwest Review 24.2 (Winter 1986)-
"In the Park, Higher than the Town"[56]Puerto del Sol 22.2 (Spring 1987)-
"Downtrodden Mary's Failed Campaign of Terror"Quarterly West 34 (Winter-Spring 1992)CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
"CivilWarLand in Bad Decline"The Kenyon Review 14.4 (Autumn 1992)
"Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz"The New Yorker (October 5, 1992)
"The 400-Pound CEO"Harper's (February 1993)
"The Wavemaker Falters"Witness 7.2 (1993)
"Sticks"Story (Winter 1994)Tenth of December
"Isabelle"Indiana Review (April 1994)CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
"Bounty"Harper's (April 1995)
"The Falls"The New Yorker (January 22, 1996)Pastoralia
"Winky"The New Yorker (July 28, 1997)
"The Deacon"The New Yorker (December 22-29, 1997)-
"The End of FIRPO in the World"The New Yorker (May 18, 1998)Pastoralia
"Sea Oak"The New Yorker (December 28, 1998)
"I Can Speak!"™The New Yorker (June 21-28, 1999)In Persuasion Nation
"The Barber's Unhappiness"The New Yorker (December 20, 1999)Pastoralia
"Exhortation"
aka "Four Institutional Monologues I"		McSweeney's 4 (Winter 2000)Tenth of December
"93990"
aka "Four Institutional Monologues IV"		In Persuasion Nation
"Pastoralia"The New Yorker (April 3, 2000)Pastoralia
"My Flamboyant Grandson"The New Yorker (January 28, 2002)In Persuasion Nation
"Jon"The New Yorker (January 27, 2003)
"The Red Bow"Esquire (September 2003)
"Christmas"
aka "Chicago Christmas, 1984"		The New Yorker (December 22, 2003)
"Bohemians"The New Yorker (January 19, 2004)
"My Amendment"The New Yorker (March 8, 2004)
"Adams"The New Yorker (August 9, 2004)
"Brad Carrigan, American"Harper's (March 2005)
"CommComm"The New Yorker (August 5, 2005)
"In Persuasion Nation"Harper's (November 2005)
"Puppy"The New Yorker (May 28, 2007)Tenth of December
"Al Roosten"The New Yorker (February 2, 2009)
"Victory Lap"The New Yorker (October 5, 2009)
"Fox 8"McSweeney's "San Francisco Panorama" (January 2010)Fox 8
"Escape from Spiderhead"The New Yorker (December 20-27, 2010)Tenth of December
"Home"The New Yorker (June 13, 2011)
"My Chivalric Fiasco"Harper's (September 2011)
"Tenth of December"The New Yorker (October 31, 2011)
"The Semplica Girl Diaries"The New Yorker (October 15, 2012)
"Mother's Day"The New Yorker (February 8-15, 2016)Liberation Day
"Elliott Spencer"The New Yorker (August 19, 2019)
"Love Letter"The New Yorker (April 6, 2020)
"Ghoul"The New Yorker (November 9, 2020)
"The Mom of Bold Action"The New Yorker (August 30, 2021)
"Liberation Day"Liberation Day (2022)
"A Thing at Work"
"Sparrow"
"My House"
"Thursday"The New Yorker (June 12, 2023)-
"The Third Premier"The New Yorker (August 29, 2024)-
"The Moron Factory"The Atlantic (March 2025)-

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^In the "Author's Note" to the 2012 paperback reprint ofCivilWarLand in Bad Decline, Saunders writes about an early story he published in 1986, titled "A Lack of Order in the Floating Object Room," which he "used ... to get into Syracuse. This story was originally published inNorthwest Review, Volume 24, Number 2, in 1986."

References

[edit]
  1. ^abSaunders, George."My Writing Education: A Time Line".The New Yorker. RetrievedOctober 26, 2015.
  2. ^abLovell, Joel (January 3, 2013)."George Saunders Has Written the Best Book You'll Read This Year".The New York Times. The New York Times Magazine.
  3. ^abWorld Fantasy Convention (2010)."Award Winners and Nominees". Archived fromthe original on December 1, 2010. RetrievedFebruary 4, 2011.
  4. ^"Saunders Wins PEN/Malamud Award". Pw.org. Archived fromthe original on May 5, 2013. RetrievedAugust 11, 2014.
  5. ^Dark, Larry (March 5, 2014)."TSP: George Saunders Wins His First Book Award, The Story Prize, for Tenth of December".The Story Prize (Press release). RetrievedSeptember 25, 2022.
  6. ^Ron Charles (March 10, 2014)."George Saunders wins $67,000 for first Folio Prize".Washington Post. RetrievedMarch 11, 2014.
  7. ^"Tenth of December by George Saunders wins inaugural Folio Prize 2014"(PDF). Folio Prize. March 10, 2014. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on March 11, 2014. RetrievedMarch 11, 2014.
  8. ^Dankowski, Terra (September 1, 2022)."Newsmaker: George Saunders".American Libraries. RetrievedSeptember 25, 2022.
  9. ^abMiller, Laura (April 26, 2000)."Knuckle-puller makes good".Salon.com. RetrievedNovember 20, 2022.
  10. ^Childers, Doug (July 1, 2000)."The Wag Chats with George Saunders". The Wag. Archived fromthe original on October 22, 2017. RetrievedJune 4, 2007.
  11. ^abcEnslin, Rob (May 24, 2022)."Writing a Legacy".Syracuse University. RetrievedNovember 20, 2022.
  12. ^abMatlock, Kelly (November 14, 2024)."NYT-featured author George Saunders inspires SU's creative writing MFA".The Daily Orange. RetrievedNovember 14, 2024.
  13. ^"George Saunders – Cultivating Thought". June 3, 2016. Archived fromthe original on June 3, 2016. RetrievedOctober 19, 2017.
  14. ^"Ayn Rand is for children".Salon.com. January 19, 2013. RetrievedAugust 11, 2014.
  15. ^abMoore, Sophia (November 16, 2022)."George Saunders talks teaching, life experience and writing at Alumni Academy".The Daily Orange. RetrievedNovember 18, 2022.
  16. ^Silverblatt, Michael (December 27, 2007)."George Saunders: The Braindead Megaphone".Bookworm.KCRW. RetrievedSeptember 25, 2022.
  17. ^Saunders, George."God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut".Amazon. RetrievedJune 4, 2007.
  18. ^Whitney, Joel."Dig the Hole: An Interview with George Saunders". Archived fromthe original on March 12, 2007. RetrievedJune 1, 2007.
  19. ^Vollmer, Matthew."'Knowable in the Smallest Fragment': An Interview with George Saunders". RetrievedJune 1, 2007.
  20. ^"American psyche | Life and style".The Guardian. RetrievedOctober 18, 2017.
  21. ^Bemis, Alec Hanley (May 10, 2006)."Mean Snacks and Monkey Shit".LA Weekly. pp. 12–27. Archived fromthe original on September 4, 2006. RetrievedJune 4, 2007.
  22. ^Clark, Judi."George Saunders". Lannan Foundation. RetrievedOctober 18, 2017.
  23. ^"John Simon Guggenheim Foundation".John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. RetrievedOctober 18, 2017.[permanent dead link]
  24. ^"George Saunders". MacArthur Foundation. RetrievedOctober 18, 2017.
  25. ^Staff (April 14, 2009)."The American Academy Of Arts And Letters Announces 2009 Literature Award Winners"(PDF) (Press release). New York:American Academy of Arts and Letters. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on October 19, 2017. RetrievedOctober 19, 2017.
  26. ^"2009 Literature Award Winners".artsandletters.org. RetrievedOctober 18, 2017.
  27. ^Karr, Mary (April 18, 2013)."George Saunders: The World's 100 Most Influential People".Time.ISSN 0040-781X. RetrievedJanuary 14, 2026.
  28. ^"Press Releases". American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
  29. ^abcde"Winners and Finalists Database". ASME. Archived fromthe original on October 10, 2018. RetrievedJune 1, 2015.
  30. ^"The Falls".The New Yorker.
  31. ^ab"The O. Henry Prize Stories".
  32. ^"Past Award Winners".penfaulkner.org. PEN/Faulkner. Archived fromthe original on October 1, 2017. RetrievedOctober 18, 2017.
  33. ^"The 10 Best Books of 2013".New York Times. 2013. RetrievedDecember 7, 2013.
  34. ^Lovell, Joel (January 3, 2013)."George Saunders Just Wrote The Best Book You'll Read This Year".The New York Times Magazine. RetrievedFebruary 1, 2013.
  35. ^"Bram Stoker Award 2011 Nominees".Locus Magazine. 2012. RetrievedMay 2, 2012.
  36. ^"National Book Foundation to Present Lifetime Achievement Award to George Saunders".National Book Foundation. 2025. RetrievedSeptember 9, 2025.
  37. ^"George Saunders". newyorker.com. RetrievedOctober 18, 2017.
  38. ^"2003 Bram Stoker Award Winners & Nominees – The Bram Stoker Awards". RetrievedJune 21, 2025.
  39. ^"2011 Bram Stoker Award Winners & Nominees – The Bram Stoker Awards".Archived from the original on June 4, 2022. RetrievedJune 21, 2022.
  40. ^"George Saunders Wins His First Book Award, The Story Prize, for Tenth of December"Archived 2014-03-10 at theWayback Machine, Larry Dark, official TSP Blog, March 5, 2014
  41. ^"U.S. author George Saunders wins Story Prize for short fiction".Reuters. March 5, 2014.Archived from the original on March 13, 2016. RetrievedMarch 7, 2015.
  42. ^Ron Charles (March 10, 2014)."George Saunders wins $67,000 for first Folio Prize".Washington Post. RetrievedMarch 11, 2014.
  43. ^"Tenth of December by George Saunders wins inaugural Folio Prize 2014"(PDF). Folio Prize. March 10, 2014. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on March 11, 2014. RetrievedMarch 11, 2014.
  44. ^"The Man Booker Prize 2017 | The Booker Prizes".thebookerprizes.com. RetrievedMay 10, 2025.
  45. ^"Awards: Ernest J. Gaines Winner; Waterstones Book of the Year Shortlist".Shelf Awareness. November 10, 2017.Archived from the original on July 23, 2022. RetrievedJuly 23, 2022.
  46. ^"2018 Winners | Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence".www.ala.org. RetrievedJune 21, 2025.
  47. ^"Audies Award Finalists and Winners 2018".AudioFile Magazine.Archived from the original on July 27, 2020. RetrievedMay 17, 2019.
  48. ^Johnson, Christen A. (August 23, 2018)."Ron Chernow, George Saunders and Caroline Fraser win 2018 Tribune literary prizes".Chicago Tribune.
  49. ^"2018 Locus Awards Winners".Locus Online. June 23, 2018. RetrievedJune 21, 2025.
  50. ^"2018 Newly Elected Members – American Academy of Arts and Letters".artsandletters.org. RetrievedSeptember 24, 2018.
  51. ^Boll, Carol (March 9, 2018)."George Saunders Elected to Academy of Arts and Letters".SU News. RetrievedApril 29, 2021.
  52. ^Sehgal, Parul (January 12, 2021)."George Saunders Conducts a Cheery Class on Fiction's Possibilities".The New York Times.ISSN 0362-4331. RetrievedApril 25, 2021.
  53. ^Promotional chapbook of essays, limited to 500 copies to accompany the bookIn persuasion nation
  54. ^Convocation speech delivered at Syracuse University for the class of 2013
  55. ^Online version is titled "Who are all these Trump supporters?".
  56. ^Puerto del Sol. English Department of New Mexico State University. 1986.

External links

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