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Karen Joy Fowler | |
|---|---|
 Fowler at the 2013 Texas Book Festival. | |
| Born | (1950-02-07)February 7, 1950 (age 76) Bloomington, Indiana, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis |
| Years active | 1985–present |
| Notable works | The Jane Austen Book Club (2004) |
| Children | 1 |
Karen Joy Fowler is an American author ofscience fiction,fantasy, andliterary fiction. Her work often centers on thenineteenth century, thelives of women, andsocial alienation.
She is best known as the author of the best-selling novelThe Jane Austen Book Club (2004) that was adapted into amovie of the same name.
Fowler was born February 7, 1950, inBloomington, Indiana,[1] and spent the first eleven years of her life there. Her family then moved toPalo Alto, California.[2] Fowler attended theUniversity of California, Berkeley, and majored inpolitical science. After having a child during the last year of her master's program, she spent seven years devoted to child-raising. Feeling restless, Fowler decided to take a dance class, and then a creative writing class at theUniversity of California, Davis. Realizing that she was never going to make it as a dancer, Fowler began to publish science fiction stories, making a name for herself with the short story "Recalling Cinderella" (1985) inL Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 1 (1985) andArtificial Things (1986)
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Fowler's first novel,Sarah Canary (1991), was published to critical acclaim.[1] The novel involves a group of people in thePacific Northwestalienated bynineteenth century America experiencing a peculiar kind offirst contact in 1873. One character is Chinese American, another putatively mentally ill, a third a feminist, and lastly Sarah herself, a mysterious woman who is actually an extraterrestrial. Fowler meant for Sarah Canary to "read like a science fiction novel to a science fiction reader" and "like a mainstream novel to a mainstream reader." Fowler's intentions were to leave room for the readers' own interpretation of the text.[3]
Fowler collaborated withPat Murphy to found theJames Tiptree, Jr. Award in 1991, a literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that "expands or explores our understanding of gender."[4] The prize is named for science fiction authorAlice Sheldon who wrote under the pen name James Tiptree Jr. The award's main focus is to recognize the authors, male or female, who challenge and reflect shifting gender roles.[5]
Fowler served as president of the Clarion Foundation, which runs theClarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Workshop.[6] She frequently teaches at the workshops.[2] She was one of the two Guests of Honor atReadercon 2007.[7]
Fowler's other genre works also tended to focus on odd corners of the nineteenth century experiencing the unexpected or fantastic. Her second novel,The Sweetheart Season (1996) is a romantic comedy infused with historical and fantasy elements.
Her 2004 novelThe Jane Austen Book Club become a critical and popular success including being onThe New York Times bestsellers list. Six members of an early 21st-centurybook club discussJane Austen books. Although it is not a science fiction or fantasy work, science fiction does play an integral part to the novel's plot.[8]
InWit's End, a young woman visits her godmother, one of America's most successful mystery writers.
Fowler's novel,We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (2013), is told from the perspective of Rosemary, a college student, while attendingUniversity of California, Davis in her early twenties. She reflects on her early life inIndiana while the main events of the story unfold in the present. Raised by academic parents (including a father who is professor of behavioral psychology atIndiana University Bloomington) with her brother Lowell and achimpanzee named Fern, Rosemary begins to discovery university secrets that relate to her past. When Fern, added to the family as part of a long-term research study, suddenly disappears, Lowell leaves home to search for her. The novel was a critical success, with contemporary authors and pundits acclaiming the narrative and writing style. It won thePEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2014. It was also shortlisted for the 2014Nebula Award and2014 Man Booker Prize.[9][10]
Fowler's novel,Booth, involves a family of Shakespearean actors best known for their connection to Lincoln's assassinJohn Wilkes Booth. It was longlisted for the2022 Booker Prize.[11]
Her 1998 collection,Black Glass, which has 15 short stories, 2 of which are original, won aWorld Fantasy Award, and her 2010 collectionWhat I Didn't See, and Other Stories, containing 12 short stories with 1 original, also won aWorld Fantasy Award over two decades later.
Fowler was inspired to write her short story "What I Didn't See" after doing research about chimpanzees for her bookWe Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. During her research, Fowler came across an essay byDonna Haraway which discusses a 1920 expedition that was carried out by the curator of the New York National Museum of History. One of the men on the expedition wanted a woman in the group to kill a gorilla in order to ultimately protect these species. He reasoned that if women could carry out this action, gorillas would no longer be seen as a fearsome animal, and the thrill of killing them would be gone. Fowler's reaction was one of appalled interest, and she was inspired to write "What I Didn't See" by these findings. It won the short story Nebula Award in 2003.[3]
In 2020 Fowler was recognized with aLife Achievement award at theWorld Fantasy Awards.[12] She was a judge for the James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award in 1997 and 2010 as well as theUrsula K. Le Guin Prize in 2023.[13] In addition to the awards received, she has also been nominated for twoHugo Awards, eight Nebula Awards, three World Fantasy Awards, three Otherwise Awards, a John W. Campbell Memorial Award, aPhilip K. Dick Award, three Shirley Jackson Awards, and twoTheodore Sturgeon Memorial Awards.[13]
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | World Fantasy Award—Short Fiction winner 2010 | Succeeded by |
