Hester Margaret Kaplan Stein is an American short story writer, and novelist.
Early life and education
Kaplan was born to a Jewish family, the daughter of novelist Anne (née Bernays) and author Justin Kaplan.[1] Her maternal grandparents were Doris Fleischman and Edward Bernays, "the father of public relations" and nephew of Sigmund Freud. She grew up in Cambridge and graduated from Barnard College.
Writing and teaching career
Her work appeared in Ploughshares, Story, Glimmer Train, and Agni,[2] "The Private Life of Skin", appeared in Southwest Review.
She has taught writing at Rhode Island School of Design,[3] the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT,[4] the Newport MFA Program, and currently teaches at Lesley University.[5]
Her book Twice Born: Finding My Father In the Margins of Biography was longlisted for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography.[6]
Personal life
In 1987, she married Dr. Michael Stein.[1]
Awards
- 1999 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction
- Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellowship
- 2008 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship[7]
- 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship[8]
Works
- The Edge of Marriage. W. W. Norton & Company. 2001. ISBN 978-0-393-32144-9.[9][10][11]
- Kinship Theory: A Novel. Back Bay. 2002. ISBN 978-0-316-50426-3.[12][13][14][15]
- The Tell. Harper Perennial. 2013. ISBN 978-0-06-218403-0.[16]
- Unravished. Ig Publishing. 2014. ISBN 978-1-935439-90-5.[17]
- Twice Born: Finding My Father In the Margins of Biography. Catapult. 2025. ISBN 978-1646223091.[18]
Anthologies
- Garrison Keillor (ed.) (1998). "Wouldn't You Know It Wasn't Love". The Best American Short Stories 1998. Houghton Mifflin. pp. 269–282. ISBN 978-0-395-87514-8.
- Amy Tan (ed.) (1999). "Live Life King-Sized". The Best American Short Stories 1999. Houghton Mifflin. pp. 189–215. ISBN 978-0-395-92684-0.[19]
Work appearing in Ploughshares
- "Goodwell", Ploughshares, Spring 1989
- "Companion Animal", Ploughshares, Spring 2003
References
- ^ "Ms. Kaplan Weds Dr. Michael Stein". The New York Times. September 14, 1987.
- ^ "Agni Online". September 15, 2022.
- ^ "RISD : Rhode Island School of Design : FACULTY LIST". Archived from the original on August 23, 2010. Retrieved November 6, 2009.
- ^ "The Scene with Hester Kaplan". New Hampshire Writers ProjectRecovered 2026-05-05.
- ^ "Creative Writing MFA | Lesley University"
- ^ "2025 Winners & Finalists, The National Book Critics Circle Awards". bookcritics.orgRetrieved 2026-05-05.
- ^ "Writers corner: Hester Kaplan", National Endowment for the Arts, archived from the original on July 26, 2011, retrieved July 1, 2011
- ^ List, Madeleine (February 11, 2020). "Providence author receives national arts fellowship". The Providence Journal. Retrieved October 21, 2024.
- ^ "The Edge of Marriage". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved October 21, 2024.
- ^ "The Edge of Marriage: Stories by Hester Kaplan". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved October 21, 2024.
- ^ Ferguson, Sarah (October 24, 1999). "Domestic Unrest: This debut collection of stories looks at husbands and wives in transition". The New York Times
- ^ "Kinship Theory by Hester Kaplan". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved October 21, 2024.
- ^ "Kinship Theory: A solid, well-written first novel that successfully avoids the saccharine and melodramatic.". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved October 21, 2024.
- ^ Kennedy, Dana (April 29, 2001). "Books | Kinship Theory". The New York Times
- ^ Kramer, Peter D. (December 1, 2001). "Kinship Theory". American Journal of Psychiatry. 158 (12): 2097–2098. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.158.12.2097
- ^ "The Tell by Hester Kaplan". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved October 21, 2024.
- ^ "Unravished". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved October 21, 2024.
- ^ "Twice Born: Finding My Father In the Margins of Biography". Amazon. Retrieved November 19, 2025.
- ^ "The Best American Short Stories". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved October 21, 2024.
External links
- Official website Archived July 31, 2019 at the Wayback Machine