Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (born 1972) is an Asian American writer. Her brother is musician Taylor Ho Bynum.[1]
She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter. She taught writing and literature in the Graduate MFA Writing program at Otis College of Art and Design until 2015[2]. Bynum is a graduate of Brown University and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Fairy tales are a common theme in many of her works. Bynum expressed her interest in fairy tales is because "they always walk that line between wonder and darkness," as well as the "disturbing energy" that they hold.[3] Madeleine is Sleeping was published by Harcourt in 2004, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and winner of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize. Her short stories, including excerpts from her new novel, have appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, Triquarterly, The Georgia Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and in Best American Short Stories.[4] Her second novel, Ms. Hempel Chronicles, was published in September 2008 and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2009.[5]
In a 2009 book review of Ms. Hempel Chronicles published in the Sunday book review of The New York Times, Josh Emmons notes Bynum's "prose remains nimble and entertaining, a model of quiet control well suited to its subject" and the "deftness with which [Ms. Hempel] observes and describes her world and its inhabitants is so engaging that for all its circumspection and regrettable lacunae, “Ms. Hempel Chronicles” works as an account of how nostalgia — both for what was and might have been — can generate a thousand mercies."[6]
In 2010, Bynum was named one of New Yorker magazine's top "20 Under 40" fiction writers in which the editors note her works "offer idiosyncratic, voice-driven narratives." [7]
In 2017, she was featured in an interview in The New Yorker magazine on surviving adolescence and social media.[8]
Awards
- 2004 Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Madeleine is Sleeping
- 2005 Whiting Award for Fiction
Works
Books
Anthologies
Short stories
- "Accomplice." The Georgia Review. Spring 2003.
- "Creep." TriQuarterly. Spring 2005.
- "Yurt". The New Yorker. 21 July 2008.
- "The Erlking". The New Yorker. 5 July 2010.
- "These Are Mysteries." Gulf Coast. Winter/Spring 2011.
- "Christmas, 1990." The Cincinnati Review. Winter 2011.
- "Tell Me My Name". Ploughshares. Emerson College. 121. Fall 2013.
- "The Burglar". The New Yorker. 11 April 2016.
- "Likes". The New Yorker. 9 October 2017.
Essays
- on Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber for Amazon: Writers Under the Influence. Fall 2004.
- on Edmund White's A Boy's Own Story for A New Literary History of America. September 2009.
- on Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus for Ninth Letter. Spring/Summer 2010.
Book Reviews
- Review of Gautam Malkani's novel Londonstani. The Washington Post. June 2006.
Readings
References
- ↑ Ng, Ivana (October 8, 2009) "Taylor Ho Bynum & Spidermonkey Strings: Madeleine Dreams". All About Jazz.
- ↑ "Otis College of Art and Design".
- ↑ "Wonder and Darkness: interview with writer Sarah Shun-lien Bynum". Asia Pacific Arts. 2 November 2011.
- ↑ Bios of 2005 Whiting Writers' Award Recipients - Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 9-20-06
- ↑ Contributor Bio, The New Yorker, July 21, 2008
- ↑ Emmons, Josh (January 2009). "Chalk Dust Memories". The New Yorker.
- ↑ The Editors (June 2010). "20 Under 40". The New Yorker.
- ↑ Davidson, Willing (October 2017). "Sarah Shun-lien Bynum on Surviving Adolescence and Social Media". The New Yorker.
- ↑ "Sarah Shun-lien Bynum Reads Yiyun Li". The New Yorker. December 2017.
External links