{{short description|American novelist and short story writer}} {{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox writer/doc --> | image = JoanSilber01.JPG | imagesize = | name = Joan Silber | caption = Joan Silber visiting Barnes & Noble for New York book signing. }} '''Joan Silber''' (born 1945) is an American novelist and short story writer. She won the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction and the 2018 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her novel ''Improvement''.

==Biography==

Joan Silber was born in 1945. She grew up in Millburn, New Jersey. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and obtained an M.A. from New York University. She taught at NYU and now teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York City.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.pshares.org/authors/author-detail.cfm?authorID=1853 |title=''Ploughshares'' > Authors & Articles > Joan Silber Biography |access-date=2010-01-11 |archive-date=2016-03-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308235447/https://www.pshares.org/authors/author-detail.cfm?authorID=1853 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Silber's work has been selected for The O. Henry Prize Stories six times—in 2003, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015, and 2021. It also appeared in the ''Best American Short Stories 2015'', and won The Pushcart Prize. Her writing has appeared in ''The New Yorker,'' ''Ploughshares,'' ''The Paris Review, Tin House, Epoch, The Southern Review, Agni, The Colorado Review,'' and other publications.<ref>[http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2004_jsilber.htm The National Book Foundation > 2004 National Book Award Finalists > Joan Silber Biography]</ref>

== Bibliography == {{Incomplete list |date=January 2024}}{{bots|deny=Citation bot}}

=== Novels === * ''Mercy'' (2025) * ''Secrets of Happiness'' (2021) * ''Improvement'' (2017) * ''The Size of the World'' (W.W. Norton, 2008) * ''Lucky Us'' (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2001) * ''In the City'' (Viking, 1987) * ''Household Words'' (Penguin Books, 1980)

=== Short fiction === ;Collections * ''Fools'' (W.W. Norton, 2013) * ''Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories'' (W.W. Norton, 2004) * ''In My Other Life'' (Sarabande Books, 2000)

=== Nonfiction === * ''The Art of Time in Fiction: As Long as It Takes'' (Graywolf Press, 2009)

==Honors and awards== [[File:JoanSilberLaughing.JPG|thumb|Joan Silber sharing a moment with audience at New York book signing, June 27, 2013, Barnes & Noble.]] * 2018 PEN/Faulkner Award for ''Improvement'' * 2018 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story * 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction winner for ''Improvement''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/national-book-critics-circle-announces-winners-for-2017-awards |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180316234023/http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/national-book-critics-circle-announces-winners-for-2017-awards |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 16, 2018 |title=National Book Critics Circle Announces Winners for 2017 Awards |publisher=National Book Critics Circle |author=Katie Tuttle |date=March 15, 2018 |accessdate=March 17, 2018}}</ref> * 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award, finalist for ''Fools''<ref>{{Cite web|title=2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Winner & Finalists {{!}} The PEN/Faulkner Foundation|url=https://www.penfaulkner.org/2014/07/31/winner-finalists-for-2014-penfaulkner-award-for-fiction/|access-date=2022-02-18|website=www.penfaulkner.org}}</ref> * 2008 The Los Angeles Times Book Prize, finalist for ''The Size of the World''<ref>{{Cite web|date=2009-03-02|title=Los Angeles Times announces 2008 book prize nominees|url=https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/03/los-angeles-tim.html|access-date=2022-02-18|website=LA Times Blogs - Jacket Copy|language=en-US}}</ref> * 2004 Story Prize, finalist for ''Ideas of Heaven''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/he-tells-the-story-of-the-story-prize/7955/ |title=He Tells the Story Of the Story Prize |work=New York Sun |author=Lauren Mechling |date=January 19, 2005 |accessdate=March 7, 2015}}</ref> * 2004 National Book Award, finalist for ''Ideas of Heaven'' <ref name="nba2004">{{cite web |url=https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2004 |title=National Book Awards – 2004 |publisher=National Book Foundation |accessdate=March 18, 2018}}</ref> * 1981 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award winner for ''Household Words''<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK+Library+and+Museum/News+and+Press/2009+PEN+Hemingway+Foundation+Award.htm |title=John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum > The Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award > Current and Past Winners |access-date=2009-08-25 |archive-date=2009-08-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090820044628/http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK+Library+and+Museum/News+and+Press/2009+PEN+Hemingway+Foundation+Award.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

She has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation,<ref>[http://www.gf.org/fellows/results?query=joan+silber&lower_bound=1925&upper_bound=2009&competition=ALL&fellowship_category=ALL&x=25&y=6 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation > Current Fellows > Past Recipients > Joan Silber]</ref> the National Endowment for the Arts<ref>[http://arts.endow.gov/pub/NEA_lit.pdf National Endowment for the Arts > Forty Years of Supporting American Writers > Past Fellowship Recipients] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080916053135/http://arts.endow.gov/pub/NEA_lit.pdf |date=2008-09-16 }}</ref> and the New York Foundation for the Arts.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.pshares.org/authors/author-detail.cfm?intAuthorID=1853 Joan Silber Biography on Ploughshares] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20081216023548/http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writer.asp?cid=1305372 Interview: Barnes and Noble, Meet the Writers: Joan Silber] * [http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2004_jsilber.htm The National Book Foundation > 2004 National Book Award Finalists > Joan Silber Biography] * [http://www.believermag.com/issues/200412/?read=interview_silber Interview: ''The Believer'' > December 2004/January 2005 > Interview with Joan Silber]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Silber, Joan}} Category:Living people Category:20th-century American novelists Category:20th-century American women novelists Category:21st-century American novelists Category:21st-century American women novelists Category:American women academics Category:Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award winners Category:National Endowment for the Arts Fellows Category:New York University alumni Category:The New Yorker people Category:Novelists from New Jersey Category:Novelists from New York (state) Category:PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners Category:Sarah Lawrence College alumni Category:Sarah Lawrence College faculty Category:1945 births Category:National Book Critics Circle Award winners Category:Writers from Millburn, New Jersey Category:PEN/Malamud Award winners