Karen Russell
Karen Russell
Karen Russellis an American novelist and short story writer. Her debut novel, Swamplandia!, was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She was also the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" in 2013...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth10 July 1981
CountryUnited States of America
kids secret hard
When you're a kid, it's hard to tell the innocuous secrets from the ones that will kill you if you keep them.
dream reading glasses
People really get myopic as they get older. We're not a culture that encourages dreaming or distraction. We're not ever good at just being. I remember reading some Adrienne Rich quote where she talks about how important it was just to watch bubbles rise in a glass.
reality everyday fiction
Fiction helps me to reconnect with the true, deep weirdness inherent in everyday reality, in our dealings with one another, in just being alive.
weather kingdoms kind
My older sister has entire kingdoms inside of her, and some of them are only accessible at certain seasons, in certain kinds of weather.
lonely fall men
A single note, held in an amber suspension of time, like a charcoal drawing of Icarus falling. It was sad and fierce all at once, alive with a lonely purity. It went on and on, until my own lungs were burning. “What bird are you calling?” I asked finally, when I couldn’t stand it any longer. The Bird Man stopped whistling. He grinned, so that I could see all his pebbly teeth. “You.
way myth valuable
Myth continues to be a valuable way to understand parts of our nature that we can't quantify.
book reading names
Heaven, Kiwi thought, would be the reading room of a great library. But it would be private. Cozy. You wouldn’t have to worry about some squeaky-shoed librarian turning the lights off on you or gauging your literacy by reading the names on your book spines, and there wouldn’t be a single other patron. The whole place would hum with a library’s peace, filtering softly over you like white bars of light…
dream special kind
It is a special kind of homelessness to be evicted from your dreams.
writing self perfection
Self-disciplin e is necessary, but so is playfulness, flexibility, joy. When you stop demanding perfection of yourself, your writing desk will become a spacious place.
beautiful vocabulary helping
Mythology is a really beautiful vocabulary passed down through centuries that helps us understand the perennial parts of our nature.
brother sibling understanding
I am extremely close to my brother, Kent, and my sister, Lauren, who have been remarkably understanding about all of my weird sibling tales.
writing trying favorites-things
I really try to write every day. It's hard, but it's my favorite thing to do, so it's usually not too, too hard.
class vocabulary dumb
My favorite classes were always dumb nerdy vocabulary.
diapers news morbid
What passes for news is just morbid speculation or cartoonish screaming, followed by diaper commercials.