Kelly Luce is an American fiction writer and editor. She is the author of the short story collection Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail and the novel Pull Me Under.^[1] In 2016 she was named a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.^[2] She has contributed writing to New York Magazine,^[3]The Sun,^[4] The Southern Review,^[5] and The Chicago Tribune,^[6] and the New England Review.^[7]

Luce's story collection, Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail, was awarded Foreword Review's Editor's Choice Prize for Fiction^[8] as well as the IPBA Ben Franklin Award for Best First Book.^[9] It was published by A Strange Object and released in the US in 2013.^[10] A Chinese translation was published in 2021.^[11] A short film by Kevin Berlandi, "Hana Sasaki's Tail," adapted from the collection, premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2016.^[12]

Luce's debut novel, Pull Me Under, was a Book of the Month Club selection^[13] and one of Elle magazine's Best Books of the year.^[14] The New York Times said the novel "wastes no time grabbing our attention,"^[15] The Chicago Tribune called it "a splendid long hike,"^[16] and O, the Oprah Magazine said "it will bewitch you."^[17] NPR named it a favorite book of the year and "a suspense novel with a female protagonist that gets more right about women than so many others I've read."^[18] It was published by in the U.S. by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on November 1, 2016,^[19] and was released in the UK in 2017,^[20] with translated editions in Japan, Poland, and Italy.^[21]

Biography

Luce was born in Brookfield, Illinois. She studied Cognitive Science at Northwestern University,^[1] after which she moved to Kawasaki, Japan, followed by Tokushima, Japan. During her time in Japan she spent a week in jail under a false accusation of shoplifting.^[3] She received an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers in 2015. In addition to her writing, she works as a literary magazine editor with Electric Literature and has worked as a children's book editor with Chronicle Books and Candlewick Press.^[22] She currently lives in Knoxville, Tennessee.^[1]

Awards and honors

• Wachtmeister Award for Literary Excellence, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, 2023^[23]
• Tennessee Arts Commission Literary Fellowship, 2022^[24]
• The Corporation at Yaddo fellowship, 2019^[25]
• Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, 2016-2017
• MacDowell Colony Fellow, 2009, 2010, 2018^[26]
• Austin Public Library Friends Foundation, Illumine Award for Emerging Writer, 2014^[27]
• Ucross Foundation Fellowship, 2015^[28]
• James A. Michener Fellow in Writing, 2012–2015^[29]

References