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| Amy Hempel | |
|---|---|
| Name | Amy Hempel |
| Birth date | 1951 |
| Birth place | New York City, New York, USA |
| Occupation | Short story writer, teacher |
| Nationality | American |
| Notable works | "Reasons to Live", "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom", "Tumble Home" |
| Awards | O. Henry Award, PEN/Malamud Award, Guggenheim Fellowship |
Amy Hempel is an American short story writer and educator known for spare, elliptical prose and concise narratives that often juxtapose humor and tragedy. Her work has been influential in contemporary American letters, taught in creative writing programs and anthologies, and has received multiple critical awards. Hempel's stories frequently explore loss, memory, family, and animal companionship through minimalist techniques.
Hempel was born in New York City and raised in suburban New Jersey in a family context connected to Newark, New Jersey, Jersey City, New Jersey, and the cultural milieu of Manhattan. She attended public schools influenced by regional institutions such as Rutgers University feeder programs and later matriculated at Columbia University extension classes and New York University courses relevant to literature and writing. Hempel pursued graduate-level study in creative writing at the University of Iowa's writing program milieu and had contact with peers and faculty from Iowa Writers' Workshop, Zadie Smith, John Cheever-era alumni networks and visiting writers tied to institutions like Harvard University and Yale University through readings and fellowships. During her formative years she encountered mentors and contemporaries associated with literary magazines such as The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Granta, and Ploughshares.
Hempel's professional career includes positions teaching creative writing at major universities and residency posts at cultural centers including Columbia University, Washington University in St. Louis, Syracuse University, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Michigan, University of Texas at Austin, Brown University, Emerson College, and visiting roles at Wellesley College. Her debut collection was published by independent and mainstream presses linked to editorial networks including Knopf, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Houghton Mifflin, and Scribner. Hempel contributed stories and essays to periodicals such as The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Harper's Magazine, Esquire, The Atlantic, Granta, Tin House, Ploughshares, The Antioch Review, The Southern Review, McSweeney's, NPR, The Guardian, The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, and anthologies edited by figures from Alice Munro to George Saunders. Her editorial and teaching networks overlapped with writers and critics including Ann Beattie, Raymond Carver, Carson McCullers, Louise Erdrich, Lorrie Moore, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Ford, Edward P. Jones, Jhumpa Lahiri, Zadie Smith, Toni Morrison, Philip Roth, John Updike, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and translators and editors associated with international festivals like Hay Festival and Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Hempel's minimalist approach aligns her with short-form innovators and prose stylists connected to the traditions of Anton Chekhov, Samuel Beckett, Jean Rhys, and James Joyce in its attention to omission, fragmentation, and voice. Critics compare her concision to aspects of Raymond Carver and the narrative economy admired by editors at The New Yorker and Granta. Recurring themes include bereavement and survival as found in works by Alice Munro and Elizabeth Bowen, the ethical bond between humans and animals evocative of Peter Singer debates and narratives akin to John Steinbeck and J. M. Coetzee, and family conflict resonant with motifs in Toni Morrison and Philip Roth. Her use of dialogue, silence, and elliptical revelation situates her within discussions alongside Saul Bellow, Kurt Vonnegut, Sylvia Plath, Anne Carson, and contemporary short story practitioners such as George Saunders, Aimee Bender, Kelly Link, and Jhumpa Lahiri.
Hempel's principal collections and publications have been influential across anglophone literary circles and university syllabi: - "Reasons to Live" (short story collection) — often taught alongside works by Alice Munro, Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, and James Joyce. - "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom" (collection) — discussed in relation to animal narratives by John Steinbeck and ethical fiction by J. M. Coetzee. - "Tumble Home" (short story collection) — reviewed in outlets such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and featured in curricula at Columbia University and NYU. Her individual stories and essays appear in collected volumes and anthologies with other notable short fiction by Lorrie Moore, Ann Beattie, Sandra Cisneros, Joyce Carol Oates, Zadie Smith, Jhumpa Lahiri, George Saunders, Alice Munro, Toni Morrison, Philip Roth, John Updike, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and Flannery O'Connor.
Hempel has received literary recognition including the O. Henry Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and recognition by organizations such as Poets & Writers and the National Book Foundation. Her work has been shortlisted and discussed for prizes associated with institutions including PEN America, The Booker Prize panels (comparative discussions), university literary prizes at Princeton University, Harvard University, and fellowships linked to Yaddo and MacDowell Colony.
Hempel's personal life and artistic influences connect her to a network of American and international writers, editors, and institutions: mentors and peers from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, editorial relationships with William Shawn-era contributors to The New Yorker, and friendships within circles that include Ann Beattie, Raymond Carver, Carson McCullers, Toni Morrison, Lorrie Moore, Joyce Carol Oates, and younger writers such as George Saunders and Zadie Smith. Her affinity for animal companions informs reading communities and charitable affiliations with organizations and causes discussed in cultural outlets like The New York Times Magazine and public radio forums such as NPR. She has lived and worked in literary centers including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and academic towns such as Iowa City and Princeton.
Category:American short story writers Category:1951 births Category:Living people