Kim Edwards
{{short description|American author and educator|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{For|the Michigan State legislator|Kimberly Edwards}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Kim Edwards
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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1958|05|04}}
| birth_place = Killeen, Texas, U.S.
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| occupation = Author
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| alma_mater = Colgate University
Iowa Writers' Workshop
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| notableworks = The Memory Keeper's Daughter
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| website = {{URL|https://kimedwardsbooks.com/}}
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Kim Edwards (born May 4, 1958){{cite web|title=The Way It Felt to Be Falling: Author Biography|url=http://www.enotes.com/way-it/author-biography|publisher=eNotes|access-date=29 November 2012}} is an American author and educator. She was born in Killeen, Texas, grew up in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, and graduated from Colgate University and The University of Iowa, where she earned an MFA in fiction and an MA in linguistics. She is the author of a story collection, The Secrets of a Fire King, which was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award; her stories have been published in The Paris Review, Story, Ploughshares, Zoetrope, and many other periodicals. She has received many awards for the short story as well, including a Pushcart Prize, the National Magazine Award, the Nelson Algren Award, and inclusion in both The Best American Short Stories and the Symphony Space program 'Selected Shorts'. She is the recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award, as well as grants from the Pennsylvania and Kentucky Arts Councils, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Memory Keeper's Daughter, her first novel, was a Barnes and Noble Discover Award pick and became a word-of-mouth best-seller, spending 122 consecutive weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list, 20 of those weeks at #1. The Memory Keeper's Daughter won the Kentucky Literary Award and the British Book Award, and was chosen as Book of the Year for 2006 by USA Today. Her second novel, The Lake of Dreams, an Independent Booksellers pick, was also an international best seller; her work has been published in more than 32 countries. Currently, Kim is working on a new novel, as well as a collection of related stories.
Early life and education
Edwards was born in Killeen, Texas. When she was two months old, her family moved to upstate New York, where she was raised.{{cite news|title=Lexington author Kim Edwards begins a tour for 'The Lake of Dreams'|url=http://www.kentucky.com/2011/01/04/1585971/lexington-author-kim-edwards-begins.html|access-date=28 February 2015|newspaper=Herald-Leader|date=4 January 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110105115158/http://www.kentucky.com/2011/01/04/1585971/lexington-author-kim-edwards-begins.html|archive-date=5 January 2011}} Edwards began college at Cayuga Community College. She transferred to Colgate University in 1979, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1981. In 1983, Edwards received a master's degree from the university of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Edwards earned a second Master of Arts degree in linguistics, also from the University of Iowa, in 1987.
Career
She wrote the short story collection, The Secrets of a Fire King (1997), which was an alternate for the 1998 PEN/Hemingway Award, and has won both a Whiting Award[http://www.whitingfoundation.org/whiting_2008.html Whiting Writers Awards] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105181813/http://www.whitingfoundation.org/whiting_2008.html |date=2010-01-05 }} retrieved May 4, 2010 and the Nelson Algren Award.[https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6876.Kim_Edwards Good Reads Kim Edwards] retrieved May 4, 2010
Edwards teaches writing at the University of Kentucky.[http://www.penguinspeakersbureau.com/speaker/30 Penguin Speaker Bureau Kim Edwards] retrieved May 4, 2010
Edwards' 2005 novel, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, was named the 2006 Book of the Year by USA Today.{{cite news|title=Memory Keeper' is top read of 2006|url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2006-12-20-yir-books-top10_x.htm?POE|access-date=29 November 2012|newspaper=USA Today|date=2006-12-21}} Her most recent novel, The Lake of Dreams, New York Times Best Seller,{{cite news|title=Best Sellers|url=https://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2011-01-23/hardcover-fiction/list.html|access-date=19 January 2011|newspaper=The New York Times|date=23 January 2011}} was published in January 2011.{{cite news|last=Pierleoni|first=Allen|title=Best-selling author Kim Edwards dreamed of success|url=http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/12/2578468/best-selling-author-kim-edwards.html|access-date=19 January 2011|newspaper=The Kansas City Star|date=12 January 2011}}{{cite news|last=Memmott|first=Carol|title=Author Kim Edwards goes from 'Memory' to 'Dreams'|url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2011-01-06-Edwards06_CV_N.htm|access-date=19 January 2011|newspaper=USA Today|date=6 January 2011}}
Personal life
Edwards married Thomas Clayton in 1987. Edwards and Clayton, who have two daughters together (Abigail and Naomi), reside in Lexington, Kentucky.
Works
=Books=
- {{cite book |date=1997 |title=The Secrets of a Fire King |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qeV8piGP9rMC&q=editions:cNKc6Mw7gbwC |publisher=WW Norton |isbn=978-0-39304-026-5 }}
- "The Great Chain of Being," Originally Published in The Paris Review, Issue 120, Fall 1991
- {{cite book |date=2005 |title=The Memory Keeper's Daughter |url=https://archive.org/details/memorykeepersda000edwa |url-access=registration |quote=9780670034161. |publisher=Viking Adult |isbn=978-0-67003-416-1 }}
- {{cite book |date=2011 |title=The Lake of Dreams |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZtThjwEACAAJ&q=9780670022175 |publisher=Viking |isbn=978-0-67002-217-5 }}
=Short stories=
- {{cite journal |date=Fall 1990 |title=Paradise |journal=Ploughshares |publisher=Emerson College }}
- {{cite journal |date=Spring 2002 |title=Aristotle's Lantern |url=http://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=134 |journal=Zoetrope: All-Story |volume=6 |issue=1 |access-date=2015-09-10 |archive-date=2015-09-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908042459/http://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=134 |url-status=dead }}
- {{cite journal |date=Fall 2003 |title=In the Garden |journal=Ploughshares |publisher=Emerson College }}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.as.uky.edu/academics/departments_programs/English/English/Faculty/Faculty/KimEdwards/Pages/default.aspx University of Kentucky profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090505002725/http://www.as.uky.edu/academics/departments_programs/English/English/Faculty/Faculty/KimEdwards/Pages/default.aspx |date=2009-05-05 }}
- [https://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/kim-edwards#/ Profile at The Whiting Foundation]
- [http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm?author_number=1270 Short Biography by BookBrowse]
- [http://us.penguingroup.com/static/html/podcast/clips/9780143037149.mp3 The Memory Keeper's Podcast] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120730135408/http://us.penguingroup.com/static/html/podcast/clips/9780143037149.mp3 |date=2012-07-30 }}
- [http://www.memorykeepersdaughter.com/ Official site for The Memory Keeper's Daughter]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Kim}}
Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni
Category:People from Killeen, Texas
Category:Colgate University alumni
Category:American women novelists
Category:21st-century American novelists
Category:Novelists from New York (state)
Category:American women short story writers