Susan Choi

{{Infobox writer

| image = Susan Choi 2019 Texas Book Festival.jpg

| caption = Choi at the 2019 Texas Book Festival

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1969}}

| birth_place = South Bend, Indiana, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| occupation = Novelist

| education = Yale University (BA)
Cornell University (MFA)

| genre = Fiction

| website = {{URL|http://www.susanchoi.com/}}

}}

Susan Choi (born 1969) is an American novelist. She is the author of several acclaimed novels, including The Foreign Student (1998), American Woman (2003), and Trust Exercise (2019), which won the National Book Award for Fiction. Choi teaches creative writing at Yale University.

Early life and education

Choi was born in South Bend, Indiana to a Korean father and a Jewish mother. She attended public schools. When she was nine years old, her parents divorced. She and her mother moved to Houston, Texas, where she attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.{{Cite web |title=Susan Choi's "Trust Exercise" Isn't about Houston ... or Is It? |url=https://www.houstoniamag.com/arts-and-culture/2021/04/national-book-award-winner-susan-choi-trust-exercise |access-date=2024-10-01 |website=Houstonia Magazine |language=en-US}} Choi earned a B.A. in Literature from Yale University (1990) and an M.F.A. from Cornell University.{{cite book|last=Choi|first=Susan|title=American Woman|year=2004|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers Inc.|location=New York|pages=About the Author}}

Career

File:Susan Choi 2019 National Book Festival.webm

After receiving her graduate degree, she worked for The New Yorker as a fact checker. At this job she met her husband, Pete Wells; they separated in 2016 but continue to share a house in Brooklyn and co-parent their two sons.{{Cite web |last=Kelly |first=Hillary |date=2019-03-31 |title=Susan Choi on Her Mind-Bending #MeToo Novel |url=https://www.vulture.com/2019/03/susan-choi-trust-exercise.html |access-date=2024-02-11 |website=Vulture |language=en}}{{cite magazine|last1=Parker|first1=Ian|title=Knives Out: Pete Wells, the Times' Restaurant Critic, wants to have fun -- or else|accessdate=10 September 2016|magazine=The New Yorker|issue=46–55|date=12 September 2016|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/12/pete-wells-the-new-york-times-restaurant-critic}}

Choi published her first novel, The Foreign Student (1998). It won the Asian American Literary Award for Fiction and was a finalist of the Discover Great New Writers Award at Barnes & Noble. Her second novel, American Woman (2003), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in literature.{{Cite web|url=http://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/susan-choi|title=Finalist: American Woman, by Susan Choi (HarperCollins)|publisher=The Pulitzer Prizes|language=en|access-date=2018-05-12}} In 2010, she won the PEN/W.G. Sebald Award for A Person of Interest, which was also a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2009.{{cite news |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/pen-american-center-names-award-winners/ |title=PEN American Center Names Award Winners |work=New York Times — ArtsBeat |last=Cohen |first=Patricia |date=23 September 2010}} In 2014, her fourth novel, My Education, won the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction.{{cite web |url=https://www.lambdaliterary.org/2014/06/winners-of-the-26th-annual-lambda-literary-awards-announced/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728191702/https://www.lambdaliterary.org/2014/06/winners-of-the-26th-annual-lambda-literary-awards-announced/ |archive-date=2020-07-28 |title=Winners of the 26th Annual Lambda Literary Awards Announced {{!}} Lambda Literary}}

With David Remnick, Choi edited an anthology of short fiction entitled Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker. Her latest novel is Trust Exercise (2019), which won the National Book Award for Fiction.

As of May 2018, Choi is working on a novel employing conventions of memoir and reportage that "takes up the question of national identity, and the extent to which it coincides or does not coincide with ethnic and with cultural identity."{{Cite web|url=https://english.yale.edu/people/full-part-time-lecturers/susan-choi|title=Susan Choi|website=english.yale.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-05-31}}

She teaches creative writing at Yale University.{{Cite web|url=https://yalecreativewriting.yale.edu/people/susan-choi|title=Susan Choi {{!}} Yale Creative Writing|website=yalecreativewriting.yale.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-05-12|archive-date=2020-01-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101172531/https://yalecreativewriting.yale.edu/people/susan-choi|url-status=dead}}

Awards and grants

Asian American Literary Award for Fiction for The Foreign Student
Steven Turner Award for The Foreign Student
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship recipient (2001)
Guggenheim Fellow (2004).
PEN/W.G. Sebald Award (2010) for A Person of Interest
Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction for My Education (2014)[http://www.nola.com/books/index.ssf/2014/06/lambda_literary_awards_rain_do.html "Looking for summer reading? Lambda Literary Awards rain down a host of choices"]. Times-Picayune, June 3, 2014.
National Book Award for Fiction for Trust Exercise (2019){{cite web|url= https://www.npr.org/2019/11/20/781353829/national-book-awards-handed-to-susan-choi-arthur-sze-and-more |title= National Book Awards Handed To Susan Choi, Arthur Sze And More |first= Colin |last= Dwyer |work= NPR |date= November 20, 2019 |access-date= December 22, 2023 |archive-date= December 22, 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231222113525/https://www.npr.org/2019/11/20/781353829/national-book-awards-handed-to-susan-choi-arthur-sze-and-more |url-status=live}}
Sunday Times Short Story Award (2021) for Flashlight{{Cite web|last=|date=2021-07-09|title=US author Choi wins £30k Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award|url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2021/07/09/189389/us-author-choi-wins-30k-sunday-times-audible-short-story-award/|access-date=2021-07-09|website=Books+Publishing|language=en-AU}}

Bibliography

=Novels=

The Foreign Student (1998), {{ISBN|0-06-019149-X}}
American Woman (2003), {{ISBN|0-06-054221-7}}
A Person of Interest (2008), {{ISBN|978-0-670-01846-8}}
My Education (2013), {{ISBN|0670024902}}
Trust Exercise (novel) (2019), {{ISBN|9781250222022}}

=Children's books=

Camp Tiger (picture book, illustrated by John Rocco) (2019), {{ISBN|9780399173295}}

= Short fiction =

;Anthologies (edited)

Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker (2000), {{ISBN|0-375-50356-0}} (ed. with David Remnick)

;StoriesShort stories unless otherwise noted.

class='wikitable sortable' width='90%'
width=25%\|Title !\|Year !\|First published !\|Reprinted/collected !\|Notes
Flashlight \|2020 \|{{cite magazine \|author=Choi, Susan \|date=September 7, 2020 \|title=Flashlight \|magazine=The New Yorker \|volume=96 \|issue=26 \|pages=60–66 \|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/07/flashlight }} \| \|
data-sort-value="Whale mother"\|The whale mother \|2020 \|{{cite magazine \|author=Choi, Susan \|date=January 2020 \|title=The whale mother \|magazine=Harper's Magazine \|url=https://harpers.org/archive/2020/01/the-whale-mother-susan-choi/ }} \| \|

class='wikitable sortable' width='90%'

width=25%|Title

!|Year

!|First published

!|Reprinted/collected

!|Notes

Flashlight

|2020

|{{cite magazine |author=Choi, Susan |date=September 7, 2020 |title=Flashlight |magazine=The New Yorker |volume=96 |issue=26 |pages=60–66 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/07/flashlight }}

data-sort-value="Whale mother"|The whale mother

|2020

|{{cite magazine |author=Choi, Susan |date=January 2020 |title=The whale mother |magazine=Harper's Magazine |url=https://harpers.org/archive/2020/01/the-whale-mother-susan-choi/ }}

References

External links

{{official website}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20071226200509/http://www.guernicamag.com/fiction/456/a_person_of_interest_a_novel_e/ Excerpt from Susan Choi's fiction in Guernica (guernicamag.com)]
[http://goldsea.com/Personalities/Choisusan/choisusan.html Goldsea.com - interview with Susan Choi (2003)]
[http://www.nypl.org/press/2004/ylfa2004W.cfm New York Public Library Young Lions Award finalist 2004]
[http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/schoi.html link to picture of Susan Choi]

Category:1969 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:American novelists of Asian descent

Category:American women novelists of Asian descent

Category:American women novelists

Category:American writers of Korean descent

Category:Cornell University alumni