THE STORY GOES
The New Yorker|April 03, 2023
The shape-shifting fictions of Kelly Link.
KRISTEN ROUPENIAN
THE STORY GOES

Kelly Link is a writer whose work is easy to revere and difficult to explain. She began her career by publishing stories in sci-fi and fantasy magazines in the mid-nineteen-nineties, just when the boundary between genre fiction and the literary mainstream was beginning to erode, and, in the years since, her work has served to speed that erosion along. Thirty years into her career, she has received a formidable procession of prizes awarded to genre-fiction writers: the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, and the Bram Stoker Award, to name just a few. More recently, she has begun to reap the accolades of the literary mainstream: in 2016, her collection “Get in Trouble” was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and in 2018 she received a MacArthur, for “pushing the boundaries of literary fiction in works that combine the surreal and fantastical with the concerns and emotional realism of contemporary life.” Through it all, the essential qualities of her work have remained unchanged. To those familiar with her writing, “Linkian” is as distinct an adjective as “Lynchian,” signifying a stylistic blend of ingenuousness and sophistication, bright flashes of humor alongside dark currents of unease, and a deep engagement with genre tropes that comes off as both sincere and subversive.

This story is from the April 03, 2023 edition of The New Yorker.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the April 03, 2023 edition of The New Yorker.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM THE NEW YORKERView All
NO WAY BACK
The New Yorker

NO WAY BACK

The resurgence, in the past decade, of Paul Schrader as one of the most accomplished and acclaimed contemporary movie directors is part of a bigger trend: the self-reinvention of Hollywood auteurs as independent filmmakers.

time-read
6 mins  |
December 09, 2024
PRIMORDIAL SORROW
The New Yorker

PRIMORDIAL SORROW

\"All Life Long,\" the title of the most recent album by the composer and organist Kali Malone, is taken from a poem by the British Symbolist author Arthur Symons: \"The heart shall be weary and wonder and cry like the sea,/ All life long crying without avail,/As the water all night long is crying to me.\"

time-read
6 mins  |
December 09, 2024
CHOPPED AND STEWED
The New Yorker

CHOPPED AND STEWED

The other day, at a Nigerian restaurant called Safari, in Houston, Texas, I peeled back the plastic wrap on a ball of fufu, a staple across West Africa.

time-read
7 mins  |
December 09, 2024
TOUCH WOOD
The New Yorker

TOUCH WOOD

What do people do all day? My daughter loves to read Richard Scarry's book of that title, though she generally skips ahead to the hospital pages.

time-read
10+ mins  |
December 09, 2024
HELLO, HEARTBREAK
The New Yorker

HELLO, HEARTBREAK

Heartbreak cures are as old as time, or at least as old as the Common Era.

time-read
10+ mins  |
December 09, 2024
ENEMY OF THE STATE
The New Yorker

ENEMY OF THE STATE

Javier Milei's plan to remake Argentina begins with waging war on the government.

time-read
10+ mins  |
December 09, 2024
THE CHOOSING ONES
The New Yorker

THE CHOOSING ONES

The saga of my Jewish conversion began twenty-five years ago, when I got engaged to my first husband.

time-read
10+ mins  |
December 09, 2024
OBSCURE FAMILIAL RELATIONS, EXPLAINED FOR THE HOLIDAYS
The New Yorker

OBSCURE FAMILIAL RELATIONS, EXPLAINED FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Children who share only one parent are half siblings. Children who have been bisected via a tragic logging accident are also half siblings, but in a different way.

time-read
2 mins  |
December 09, 2024
NOTE TO SELVES
The New Yorker

NOTE TO SELVES

The Sonoran Desert, which covers much of the southwestern United States, is a vast expanse of arid earth where cartoonish entities-roadrunners, tumbleweeds, telephone-pole-tall succulents make occasional appearances.

time-read
10+ mins  |
December 09, 2024
BADDIE ISSUES
The New Yorker

BADDIE ISSUES

\"Wicked\" and \"Gladiator II.\"

time-read
6 mins  |
December 02, 2024