Samantha Hunt (born May 15, 1971) is an American novelist, essayist and short-story writer.
Samantha Hunt | |
---|---|
Born | May 15, 1971 |
Occupation | Novelist |
Language | English |
Nationality | American |
Education | Warren Wilson College (MFA) |
Notable works | The Seas , The Dark Dark,Mr. Splitfoot,The Invention of Everything Else, The Unwritten Book |
Notable awards | St. Francis College Literary Prize |
Website | |
www |
She is the author of The Dark Dark and The Unwritten Book, published by Farrar, Straus, Giroux; The Seas, published by MacAdam/Cage and Tin House;[1] and the novels Mr. Splitfoot and The Invention of Everything Else,[2] published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Early life
editHunt was born the youngest of six children[3] in 1971. Her father was an editor, her mother is a painter.[4] She moved in 1989 to attend the University of Vermont,[5] where she studied literature, printmaking and geology. She received her MFA from Warren Wilson College, before moving to New York City in 1999.[4]
Career
editBooks
editHunt's debut novel, The Seas, first published in 2004, is a magical-realist novel about a young girl in a Northern town who believes herself to be a mermaid.[6] The book was voted one of the Village Voice Literary Supplement's Favorite Books of 2004,[7] and won the National Book Foundation award for "5 under 35" in 2006.[8] In 2018, The Seas was republished by Tin House Books in 2018 with a foreword by Maggie Nelson.[7]
In 2008, she published her second novel, The Invention of Everything Else through Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The novel provides a fictionalized account of the final days of inventor Nikola Tesla. It won both the Bard Fiction Prize in 2010, and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.[9]
Her other novels include Mr. Splitfoot (2016), a ghost story,[10] and The Dark Dark: Stories (2017), a collection of short stories.
Hunt's short stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, McSweeney's, The Atlantic, A Public Space, Cabinet, Esquire, The Believer, Blind Spot, Harper’s Bazaar, The Village Voice, Seed Magazine, Tin House, New York Magazine, on the radio program This American Life and in a number of anthologies including Trampoline edited by Kelly Link. Hunt's play, The Difference Engine, a story about the life of Charles Babbage, was produced by the Theater of a Two-Headed Calf.
Awards
editHunt won the Bard Fiction Prize,[11] the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 award,[12] the St. Francis College Literary Prize[13] and was a finalist for the Orange Prize.[14] In 2017, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction.[15]
Literary influences
editHunt's credits her experiences growing up one of six children for her interest in literature,[16] her dialogue,[17] and her fictional portrayals of motherhood.[3]
Profession
editHunt is a professor of writing at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY.[10]
Bibliography
editBooks
edit- The Unwritten Book (2022)
- The Dark Dark: Stories (2017)
- Mr Splitfoot (2016)
- The Invention of Everything Else (2008) Reading at Google
- The Seas (2004)
- My Inventions and Other Writings by Nikola Tesla and Samantha Hunt (introduction - 2011)
Online texts
editShort stories
edit- "A Love Story", The New Yorker, 22 May 2017[18]
- "The Yellow", The New Yorker, 21 November 2010[19]
- "Three Days", The New Yorker, 8 January 2016[20]
- "Go Team", The Atlantic, March 2020[21]
Essays
edit- "There Is Only One Direction", New York Magazine, 12 May 2015[22]
- "Queer Theorem", Lapham's Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 2, Spring 2017[23]
- "Terrible Twins", The New York Times Magazine, 1 April 2011[24]
- "Swiss Near-Miss", This American Life, 11 June 2014[25]
- "A Brief History of Books That Do Not Exist", Lithub, 4 January 2016[26]
References
edit- ^ Lyons, Stephen (December 19, 2004). "A 'mermaid holds the key to a beloved sailors fate". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ^ Thomas, Louisa (March 23, 2008). "At The Hotel New Yorker". New York Times.
- ^ a b Leyshon, Cressida (May 23, 2017). "This Week in Fiction: Samantha Hunt on the Unspoken Terrors of Being a New Mother". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
- ^ a b "Samantha Hunt". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
- ^ "Q&A with author Samantha Hunt". Financial Times. February 19, 2016. Retrieved June 19, 2022.(subscription required)
- ^ "The Seas". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
- ^ a b "Samantha Hunt : : The Seas". samanthahunt.net. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
- ^ "The Seas". National Book Foundation. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
- ^ "Samantha Hunt". www.samanthahunt.net. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
- ^ a b "Pratt Institute". www.pratt.edu. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
- ^ "Samantha Hunt, 2010 Recipient" Bard Fiction Prize.
- ^ "KQED, Public Media for Northern California". www.kqed.org.
- ^ "Samantha Hunt Wins 2019 SFC Literary Prize for The Dark Dark". St. Francis College. September 21, 2019. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
- ^ Itzkoff, David (April 21, 2009). "Orange Prize Finalists Announced". New York Times.
- ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Samantha Hunt". Retrieved March 10, 2020.
- ^ "Samantha Hunt: By the Book". The New York Times. June 21, 2018. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
- ^ Gebremedhin, Thomas (February 11, 2020). "Samantha Hunt on the Unbearable Flatness of Being". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
- ^ Hunt, Samantha (May 15, 2017). ""A Love Story"". The New Yorker. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
- ^ Hunt, Samantha (November 22, 2010). "The Yellow". The New Yorker. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
- ^ Hunt, Samantha (January 9, 2006). "Three Days". The New Yorker. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
- ^ Hunt, Samantha (February 11, 2020). "Go, Team". The Atlantic. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
- ^ Hunt, Samantha (May 12, 2015). "There Is Only One Direction". The Cut. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
- ^ "Queer Theorem | Samantha Hunt". Lapham’s Quarterly. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
- ^ Hunt, Samantha (April 1, 2011). "Terrible Twins". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
- ^ Beckmann, Claire; Samantha Hunt (December 12, 2017). "Swiss Near-miss". This American Life. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
- ^ Hunt, Samantha (January 4, 2016). "A Brief History of Books That Do Not Exist". Literary Hub. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
External links
edit- The New York Times [1]
- Interview at Bookslut
- Interview on the Bat Segundo Show