Jump to content

Mona Awad

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Homemade Pencils (talk | contribs) at 16:42, 18 July 2023 (Added information about Awad's fourth novel and fixed a website citation.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Mona Awad
Born (1978-08-22) August 22, 1978 (age 45)
Montreal, Quebec
Occupationnovelist, short stories
NationalityCanadian
Alma mater
Notable works
  • 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl
  • Bunny
  • All's Well

Mona Awad (born August 22, 1978) is a Canadian novelist and short-story writer known for works of darkly comic fiction.[1][2][3]

Awad's debut novel, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and received the Amazon.ca First Novel Award.[4] Her second novel, Bunny, was a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror and New England Book Award. Her third novel, All's Well, was likewise a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror.

She has worked as an assistant professor at Syracuse University since 2020.[5]

Biography

Awad was born on August 22, 1978 in Montreal, Quebec. Her father, an Egyptian Muslim, immigrated to Canada in the 1970s. Her mother is a French-Canadian Catholic of Serbian and Irish descent. Awad's parents met in Montreal.[6]

Awad moved to Mississauga, Ontario when she was 13.[7][1] There, she attended Father Michael Goetz Secondary School.[8] Awad studied English literature at York University, earning a Bachelor of Arts from the university in 2004. She went on to earn a masters in English at the University of Edinburgh, an MFA at Brown University,[1] and a PhD at the University of Denver.[9]

Work

Awad's short fiction and non-fiction writing has been published in magazines including McSweeney's, The Walrus, Joyland, Post Road, St. Petersburg Review, and Maisonneuve. When Awad began writing as a columnist for Maisonneuve, she used the pseudonym Veronica Tartley.

Awad desires for her stories to provide readers with "a sense of connection" so that "people [may] feel less alone."[10]

In 2017, Awad's short story Woman Causes Avalanche[11] was published by the L.A. Review of Books.

Her debut book,13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, a novel (structured using linked short stories) about a woman's lifelong struggle with body image issues, won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2016.[12] She was inspired to write the book because of her experiences growing up and struggling with her own body image.[13] In the Los Angeles Times, Awad has been quoted as saying, she "made [music] playlists for every chapter" in 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl because it helped her "immerse" herself in the story and better "access it."[14]

Her second novel, Bunny, was published in June, 2019, by Viking Press.[15] Bunny tells the story of a girl named Samantha Mackey who attends a prestigious graduate program located in New England, at the fictional Warren University. There Samantha finds herself entangled in the weird rituals led by the "Bunnies" — her fellow students who are more than just the clique that they seem on the surface. It was optioned for film by Bad Robot Productions in 2023.[16][17]

Her third novel, All's Well, was released on August 3, 2021 by Simon & Schuster.[18]

Awad's fourth novel, Rouge, is set for release in September 2023 by Simon & Schuster.[19]

Author Margaret Atwood has called Awad her Literary Heir Apparent.[20]

She has lived in the United States since 2009, currently in Syracuse, New York.

References

  1. ^ a b c "Mona Awad gives us 13 ways to look at 'fat girls'". Toronto Star, February 21, 2016.
  2. ^ Veitch, Mara (2021-08-02). "The Novelist Mona Awad Pushes Shakespeare off the Stage". Interview Magazine. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  3. ^ Kelly, Hillary (2021-08-05). "Review: Wellness as metaphor: Mona Awad's new novel of pain and witchery". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  4. ^ "Mona Awad wins Amazon.ca First Novel Award". CBC Books, May 26, 2016.
  5. ^ "Arts & Sciences: People: Faculty: Mona Awad". College of Arts & Sciences at Syracuse University. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  6. ^ "My Father Was Never There. My Father Never Left Me". Vogue. 2021-06-15. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  7. ^ "In Mona Awad's new novel, All's Well, the agony of physical pain meets the drama of the Shakespearean stage". The Globe and Mail. 2021-08-04. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  8. ^ Clay, Chris (2016-05-27). "Mona Awad wins First Novel Award for 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl". Mississauga News. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  9. ^ "Mona Awad wins Amazon.ca First Novel Award: 'When I was writing the book, frankly, I never thought it would see the light of day'". The Globe and Mail, May 26, 2016.
  10. ^ "We Do Adjust Our Reality for Other People: An Interview with Mona Awad". Electric Literature. 2016-03-02. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
  11. ^ "LARB Lit: Woman Causes Avalanche - Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
  12. ^ "Thien, Barwin, Donoghue make Giller Prize shortlist ". The Globe and Mail, September 26, 2016.
  13. ^ "Mona Awad Wants You to Confront the Word "Fat"". ELLE. 2016-02-24. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
  14. ^ Graham, Latria (9 March 2016). "Mona Awad on her sharp-voiced debut, '13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
  15. ^ "28 works of Canadian fiction to watch for in spring 2019". CBC Books, January 25, 2019.
  16. ^ Bernardi, Dan (4 April 2023). "Film Rights to Mona Awad's Novel 'Bunny' Purchased by Bad Robot Productions". Syracuse University News. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  17. ^ Roberts, Joe (18 March 2023). "Bunny: Everything We Know So Far About Bad Robot's Movie Adaptation". Slash Film. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  18. ^ Awad, Mona (August 3, 2021). All's Well. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-9821-6966-4.
  19. ^ Awad, Mona (September 12, 2023). Rouge. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1982169695.
  20. ^ Guadagnino, Kate (20 April 2023). "Margaret Atwood and Mona Awad on Writing Outside the Lines". T: The New York Times Style Magazine. Retrieved 8 May 2023.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mona_Awad&oldid=1165978507"