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American writer
Clare Beams (born 1981 or 1982)
[1] is an American short story writer and novelist. She has published a collection of short stories and two novels, and her works are often about women's experiences.
Life and career
Beams grew up in
Connecticut .
[1] She graduated from
Columbia University with an MFA in 2006.
[2]
[3] She taught high school English for nine years in
Massachusetts , and later moved to
Pittsburgh where she taught fiction at the
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts .
[2]
[4] In 2014 she received a
National Endowment for the Arts fellowship for prose.
[2] As of 2024
[update] she teaches in the
Randolph College MFA program.
[5] She and her husband have two daughters.
[1]
[6]
Beams' debut book, the short story collection We Show What We Have Learned , was published in 2016, and was listed by
Kirkus Reviews as one of the best debut fiction books of that year.
[7] The review described it as a "richly imagined and impeccably crafted debut".
[8]
Joyce Carol Oates described her as a "female/feminist voice for the 21st century".
[9] Reviews in the
The New York Times , the
Star Tribune , the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and
Paste also praised the collection.
[4]
[10]
[11]
[12] The collection features themes of transformation and magical realism, and four of the nine stories are set in schools.
[12]
[4] It was a finalist for the
PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize , the
Young Lions Fiction Award and the
Shirley Jackson Award for best collection.
[13]
[14]
[15]
She was writer in residence at
Bard College in 2020, having received the Bard Fiction Prize for We Show What We Have Learned .
[13]
[16] In the same year she published her first novel, The Illness Lesson . Set in 19th century Massachusetts, the novel is about an illness affecting a school of young women.
[3]
[17] It was described by
The Washington Post as "
Louisa May Alcott meets
Shirley Jackson , with a splash of
Margaret Atwood ",
[13] and by The New York Times as "astoundingly original".
[18] It was longlisted for the
Center for Fiction First Novel Prize .
[19]
Beams' second novel The Garden was published in 2024, and she has said it was inspired by the history of
diethylstilbestrol , a drug prescribed to pregnant women in the mistaken belief that it would prevent miscarriage but that instead caused serious adverse side effects.
[20] The New York Times observed that "the genius of the novel is the way Beams continually intertwines fictional elements with true-to-life obstetric practices".
[20] The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted that "like her previous work, [Beam] writes with her eyes wide open, completely unafraid to embrace the macabre".
[21] She is the 2023-24 Walton Visiting Writer in Fiction at the
University of Arkansas .
[5]
Works
We Show What We Have Learned (short story collection, Lookout Books, 2016)
[9]
The Illness Lesson (novel, Doubleday, 2020)
[13]
The Garden (novel, Doubleday, 2024)
[1]
References
^
a
b
c
d Beams, Clare (April 7, 2024).
"Sandy Hook and its Ghosts: Author Clare Beams Reflects on Growing Up in Newtown, Conn" . People . Retrieved May 4, 2024 .
^
a
b
c
"Clare Beams" . National Endowment for the Arts . Retrieved April 24, 2024 .
^
a
b Shapiro, Rebecca.
"Review: "The Illness Lesson" " . Columbia Magazine . Retrieved April 24, 2024 .
^
a
b
c Wright, Wendeline O. (December 4, 2016).
" 'We Show What We Have Learned': Pittsburgh author Clare Beams' unsettling literary triumph" . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Archived from
the original on December 6, 2016.
^
a
b
"Clare Beams, 2023-24 Walton Visiting Writer in Fiction, to Read in Fayetteville" . University of Arkansas . February 16, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024 .
^
"about" . Clare Beams . Retrieved May 4, 2024 .
^
"Best Debut Fiction of 2016" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved May 4, 2024 .
^
"We Show What We Have Learned" . Kirkus Reviews . July 27, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2024 .
^
a
b Moore, Andrew (October 19, 2024).
"A Conversation with Clare Beams" . Pittsburgh City Paper . Retrieved April 24, 2024 .
^ Williams, John (November 30, 2016).
"Books by Clare Beams, Hans Herbert Grimm, April Ayers Lawson and Kelly Luce" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved April 24, 2024 .
^ Forbes, Malcolm (November 4, 2024).
"Review: 'We Show What We Have Learned and Other Stories,' by Clare Beams" . Star Tribune . Retrieved April 24, 2024 .
^
a
b An, Christine (October 28, 2016).
"Clare Beams Proves She's a Captivating Literary Voice with We Show What We Have Learned" . Paste Magazine . Retrieved May 4, 2024 .
^
a
b
c
d Winik, Marion (March 3, 2020).
" 'The Illness Lesson' alludes to 'Little Women' but will remind you of darker works" . The Washington Post . Retrieved May 4, 2024 .
^
"The New York Public Library's 2017 Young Lions Fiction Award" . Town & Country . June 8, 2017. Retrieved May 4, 2024 .
^
"2016 Shirley Jackson Awards Winners" . The Shirley Jackson Awards . Retrieved May 4, 2024 .
^
"Bard Fiction Prize Winner Clare Beams to Give Reading on February 24" . Bard College . February 13, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2024 .
^ Meyer, Lily (March 9, 2020).
"The Claustrophobic Menace of Boarding-School Fiction" . The Atlantic . Retrieved April 24, 2024 .
^ Jones, Siobhan (February 14, 2020).
"An Adulterer, a Gang Member, a Dystopian Teacher: 3 Novels of American Womanhood" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved April 24, 2024 .
^
"2020 First Novel Prize" . The Center for Fiction . Retrieved May 4, 2024 .
^
a
b Oshetsky, Claire (April 9, 2024).
"Is This Maternity Hospital Haunted, or Is It All a Pregnant Metaphor?" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved April 24, 2024 .
^ Gualtieri, Christy.
"Review: Clare Beams on the desire and darkness of motherhood" . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Archived from
the original on April 24, 2024. Retrieved April 24, 2024 .
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