About Roxana

Roxana Robinson is the author of eleven books—seven novels, three collections of short stories, and the biography of Georgia O’Keeffe. Four of these were chosen as New York Times Notable Books, two as New York Times Editors’ Choices.

Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Best American Short Stories, The Southampton Review, Ep!phany and elsewhere. Her work has been widely anthologized and broadcast on NPR. Her books have been published in England, France, Germany, Holland and Spain.

Roxana Robinson has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation and the MacDowell Colony, and she was named a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library. Robinson has served on the Boards of PEN and the Authors Guild, and was the president of the Authors Guild. She has received the Barnes and Noble “Writers for Writers Award,” given by Poets and Writers, and the Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community from the Authors Guild. She teaches in the MFA Program at Hunter College.

Author photo by Beowulf Sheehan

Full Bio

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Awards

2023

  • Authors Guild Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community

2019

  • 2019 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award

2015

  • Finalist - Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, NBCC

2014

  • Sparta winner of the James Webb Award

  • Sparta included on Short List for the 2015 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

  • Fiction Award, Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, for Sparta

  • Sparta a Best Books of the Year at the Chicago Tribune

  • Sparta a Best Books of the Year at the BBC

  • Sparta, Publishers Weekly, The 10 Best Contemporary War Novels

2013

  • Finalist - Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, NBCC

  • BBC’s “Ten best books of 2013”

2008

  • Fiction Award, Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, for Cost

  • Cost named One of the Best Five Fiction Books of the Year by The Washington Post

  • Cost named New York Times Editors’ Choice

  • Cost on the best books of the year lists at The Wall Street Journal, The Seattle Times, and the Chicago Tribune

  • Cost named spring 2008 Recommended Reads choice of the National Book Critics Circle

2006

  • “A Perfect Stranger,” the story, listed in Best American Short Stories

2005

  • Blind Man” was listed in Best American Short Stories

2003

  • Sweetwater named Barnes and Noble Best Books of 2003

  • Sweetwater named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year

  • Sweetwater named a Book Sense choice

  • Sweetwater named a Literary Guild Featured Alternate Selection

  • Sweetwater named Chicago Tribune Best Books of 2003

2001

  • “Face-Lift” selected by Houghton Mifflin for inclusion in Best American Mystery Stories

  • “Family Christmas,” Finalist, National Magazine Awards for Fiction

  • “Face-Lift” and “Family Christmas” listed in Best American Short Stories

2000

  • Fellowship from the John S. Guggenheim Foundation

  • “Assistance,” published in The Atlantic, listed in Best American Short Stories

1999

  • This Is My Daughter received the Washington Irving Award, Westchester Library Association

  • Fellowship from The McDowell Colony, September/October

1998

  • This Is My Daughter named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times

1997

  • Asking for Love named one of the Notable Books of the Year by the American Library Association

  • Washington Irving Award, Westchester Library Association

1995

  • “King of the Sky” and “Leaving Home” listed in Best American Short Stories

1994

  • “Mr. Sumarsono,” story published in The Atlantic, chosen for Best American Short Stories

  • Founders’ Day Award for Literature, The Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, April 16, 1994

1992

  • A Glimpse of Scarlet and Other Stories, paperback, named Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times

  • “The Time for Kissing,” story published in The Atlantic, finalist, National Magazine Awards for fiction

  • “The Time for Kissing,” listed in Best American Short Stories

1991

  • A Glimpse of Scarlet and Other Stories, named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times

  • Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life paperback, named one of the Recommended Books of the Year by The New York Times

  • Honored as a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library, New York

1990

  • Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life, nominated for the Charles Eldredge Award for Scholarship, Smithsonian Institution

  • Nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award

  • Recipient of a Washington Irving Award

1989

  • Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life named one of the Recommended Books of the Year by The New York Times, 1989, hardbound, and 1990, paperback

  • Summer Light chosen for inclusion in the Pennsylvania Writers Collection

1988

  • Summer Light, Washington Irving Book Award, Westchester Library Association

1987

  • National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in creative writing

1984

  • Getting On,” published in The New Yorker, listed in Best American Short Stories

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