Jim Shepard
Named by the Daily Beast as “without a doubt the most ambitious story writer in America” and described by NPR as “one of this country’s greatest fiction writers,” Shepard is the author of multiple short-story collections and novels, including Like You’d Understand, Anyway, which won The Story Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award. His short fiction has often been selected for Best American Short Stories and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and his most recent novel The Book of Aron was awarded the PEN/New England Award. He joins us to speak about his own unique blend of research, characterization, and craftsmanship.
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Jim Shepard is the author of four previous collections, including Like You’d Understand, Anyway, which won The Story Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award, and his short fiction has often been selected for Best American Short Stories and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories. The most recent of his seven novels, The Book of Aron, won the PEN/New England Award, the Sophie Brody Medal for achievement in Jewish literature, the Harold U. Ribalow Book Prize for Jewish literature, and the Clark Fiction Prize. He lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts with his wife, the writer Karen Shepard, his three children and three beagles, and he teaches at Williams College.