Kim Edwards

{{short description|American author and educator|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{For|the Michigan State legislator|Kimberly Edwards}} {{use mdy dates|date=March 2026}} {{Infobox writer  | name = Kim Edwards | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1958|05|04}} | birth_place = Killeen, Texas, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = Author | language = | education = | alma_mater = Colgate University <br> Iowa Writers' Workshop | period = | genre = | subject = | movement = | notableworks = ''The Memory Keeper's Daughter'' | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | website = {{URL|https://kimedwardsbooks.com/}} | portaldisp = }}

'''Kim Edwards''' (born May 4, 1958) is an American author and educator. She is the author of a story collection, ''The Secrets of a Fire King'', and her first novel, ''The Memory Keeper's Daughter'', won several awards and became a bestseller.

==Early life and education== Kim Edwards was born on May 4, 1958<ref name=enotes>{{cite web|title=The Way It Felt to Be Falling: Author Biography|url=http://www.enotes.com/way-it/author-biography|publisher=eNotes|access-date=29 November 2012}}</ref> in Killeen, Texas. When she was two months old, her family moved to upstate New York, where she was raised.<ref>{{cite news|title=Lexington author Kim Edwards begins a tour for 'The Lake of Dreams'|url=http://www.kentucky.com/2011/01/04/1585971/lexington-author-kim-edwards-begins.html|access-date=28 February 2015|newspaper=Herald-Leader|date=4 January 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110105115158/http://www.kentucky.com/2011/01/04/1585971/lexington-author-kim-edwards-begins.html|archive-date=5 January 2011}}</ref>

Edwards began college at Cayuga Community College. She transferred to Colgate University in 1979, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1981. In 1983, Edwards received a master's degree from the university of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Edwards earned a second Master of Arts degree in linguistics, also from the University of Iowa, in 1987.<ref name=enotes/>

==Career== Edwards wrote the short story collection, ''The Secrets of a Fire King'' (1997), which was an alternate for the 1998 PEN/Hemingway Award, and has won both a Whiting Award<ref>[http://www.whitingfoundation.org/whiting_2008.html Whiting Writers Awards] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105181813/http://www.whitingfoundation.org/whiting_2008.html |date=2010-01-05 }} retrieved May 4, 2010</ref> and the Nelson Algren Award.<ref>[https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6876.Kim_Edwards Good Reads Kim Edwards] retrieved May 4, 2010</ref>

Edwards' 2005 novel, ''The Memory Keeper's Daughter'', was named the 2006 Book of the Year by ''USA Today''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Memory Keeper' is top read of 2006|url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2006-12-20-yir-books-top10_x.htm?POE|access-date=29 November 2012|newspaper=USA Today|date=2006-12-21}}</ref> Her most recent novel, ''The Lake of Dreams'', ''New York Times'' Best Seller,<ref>{{cite news|title=Best Sellers|url=https://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2011-01-23/hardcover-fiction/list.html|access-date=19 January 2011|newspaper=The New York Times|date=23 January 2011}}</ref>  was published in January 2011.<ref>{{cite news|last=Pierleoni|first=Allen|title=Best-selling author Kim Edwards dreamed of success|url=http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/12/2578468/best-selling-author-kim-edwards.html|access-date=19 January 2011|newspaper=The Kansas City Star|date=12 January 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Memmott|first=Carol|title=Author Kim Edwards goes from 'Memory' to 'Dreams'|url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2011-01-06-Edwards06_CV_N.htm|access-date=19 January 2011|newspaper=USA Today|date=6 January 2011}}</ref>

Her second novel, ''The Lake of Dreams'', an Independent Booksellers pick, was also an international best seller.{{cn|date=March 2026}}

As of 2010, Edwards was teaching writing at the University of Kentucky.<ref>[http://www.penguinspeakersbureau.com/speaker/30 Penguin Speaker Bureau Kim Edwards] retrieved May 4, 2010</ref>

==Recognition and awards== {{unsourced section|date=March 2026}} ''The Secrets of a Fire King'', which was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award; her stories have been published in ''The Paris Review, Story, Ploughshares, Zoetrope'', and many other periodicals. She has received many awards for the short story as well, including a Pushcart Prize, the National Magazine Award, the Nelson Algren Award, and inclusion in both ''The Best American Short Stories'' and the Symphony Space program 'Selected Shorts'.{{cn|date=March 2026}}

She is the recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award, as well as grants from the Pennsylvania and Kentucky Arts Councils, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, and the National Endowment for the Arts.{{cn|date=March 2026}}

''The Memory Keeper's Daughter'', her first novel, was a Barnes and Noble Discover Award pick and became a word-of-mouth best-seller, spending 122 consecutive weeks on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list, 20 of those weeks at #1. ''The Memory Keeper's Daughter'' won the Kentucky Literary Award and the British Book Award, and was chosen as Book of the Year for 2006 by ''USA Today''.

==Personal life== Edwards married Thomas Clayton in 1987, and they have two daughters together.<ref name=enotes/>

==Works==

===Books=== * {{cite book |date=1997 |title=The Secrets of a Fire King |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qeV8piGP9rMC&q=editions:cNKc6Mw7gbwC |publisher=WW Norton |isbn=978-0-39304-026-5 }} ** "The Great Chain of Being," Originally Published in ''The Paris Review'', Issue 120, Fall 1991 * {{cite book |date=2005 |title=The Memory Keeper's Daughter |url=https://archive.org/details/memorykeepersda000edwa |url-access=registration |quote=9780670034161. |publisher=Viking Adult |isbn=978-0-67003-416-1 }} * {{cite book |date=2011 |title=The Lake of Dreams |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZtThjwEACAAJ&q=9780670022175 |publisher=Viking |isbn=978-0-67002-217-5 }}

===Short stories=== *{{cite journal |date=Fall 1990 |title=Paradise |journal=Ploughshares |publisher=Emerson College }} *{{cite journal |date=Spring 2002 |title=Aristotle's Lantern |url=http://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=134 |journal=Zoetrope: All-Story |volume=6 |issue=1 |access-date=2015-09-10 |archive-date=2015-09-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908042459/http://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=134 |url-status=dead }} *{{cite journal |date=Fall 2003 |title=In the Garden |journal=Ploughshares |publisher=Emerson College }}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.as.uky.edu/academics/departments_programs/English/English/Faculty/Faculty/KimEdwards/Pages/default.aspx University of Kentucky profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090505002725/http://www.as.uky.edu/academics/departments_programs/English/English/Faculty/Faculty/KimEdwards/Pages/default.aspx |date=2009-05-05 }} *[https://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/kim-edwards#/ Profile at The Whiting Foundation] * [http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm?author_number=1270 Short Biography by BookBrowse] * [http://us.penguingroup.com/static/html/podcast/clips/9780143037149.mp3 The Memory Keeper's Podcast] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120730135408/http://us.penguingroup.com/static/html/podcast/clips/9780143037149.mp3 |date=2012-07-30 }} * [http://www.memorykeepersdaughter.com/ Official site for The Memory Keeper's Daughter]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Kim}} Category:Living people Category:1958 births Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Category:People from Killeen, Texas Category:Colgate University alumni Category:21st-century American novelists Category:Novelists from Texas Category:Novelists from New York (state) Category:American women short story writers Category:21st-century American women novelists Category:21st-century American short story writers