Joan Silber
Encyclopedia
Joan Silber is an American novelist and short story writer. She is the author of Household Words (Penguin Books, 1981), which won a PEN/Hemingway Award, and Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories (W.W. Norton, 2004), which was a finalist for both the 2004 National Book Award
and the Story Prize
. She has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her work has been published in The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize collections, and has also appeared in The New Yorker
, Ploughshares
, and The Paris Review.
Silber grew up in Millburn, New Jersey
. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College
and obtained a M.A. degree from New York University
. She taught at NYU and now teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and currently lives in New York City.
Short Story Collections
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
and the Story Prize
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 published in the United States during a calendar...
. She has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her work has been published in The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize collections, and has also appeared in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, Ploughshares
Ploughshares
Ploughshares is an American literary magazine founded 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 the heart of Boston...
, and The Paris Review.
Silber grew up in Millburn, New Jersey
Millburn, New Jersey
Millburn is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 20,149.Millburn Township was created as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 20, 1857, from portions of Springfield Township.Millburn also...
. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
and obtained a M.A. degree from New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
. She taught at NYU and now teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and currently lives in New York City.
Published work
Novels- The Size of the World (W.W. Norton, 2008)
- Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories (W.W. Norton, 2004)
- Lucky Us (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2001)
- In the City (Viking, 1987)
- Household Words (Penguin Books, 1980)
Short Story Collections
- In My Other Life (Sarabande BooksSarabande BooksSarabande Books is an American not-for-profit literary press founded in 1994, and located in Louisville, Kentucky, publishing poetry, fiction and nonfiction.The press was co-founded by Sarah Gorham and Jeffrey Skinner...
, 2000)
Honors and awards
- 1986 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship
- 1984 Guggenheim Fellowship
- 1981 PEN Hemingway Foundation Award