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Ruth Franklin

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Ruth Franklin
Born
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
EducationB.A., English Language and Literature, 1995, Columbia University
M.A., comparative literature, Harvard University
OccupationAuthor
AwardsNational Book Critics Circle Award for Biography
Websiteruthfranklin.net

Ruth Franklin is an American literary critic. She is a former editor at The New Republic and an Adjunct professor at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Her first biography, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography and was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2016.

Early life and education

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Growing up, Franklin attended the Park School of Baltimore.[1] During her senior year of high school, Franklin interned at a newspaper where she experienced sexual harassment from older reporters.[2] After graduating, Franklin enrolled in Columbia University for her Bachelor of Arts degree in English Language and Literature. She later graduated from Harvard University with a Master's degree in Comparative Literature.[1]

Career

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In 1999, Franklin began her literary critiquing career at The New Republic.[3] While working as a senior critic, she published her first book titled A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction in 2010. In Franklin's book A Thousand Darknesses, she critiqued the assumption that Holocaust survivor testimonies were completely factual and should be taken as such. "Her study questions the privileging of autobiography over fiction and endorses imagination as a form of truth-telling," wrote Heidi E. Bollinger.[4] Franklin instead argued that Holocaust literature was better understood through fiction.[5] As a result, she was the co-recipient of the 2012 Roger Shattuck Prize for Criticism alongside David Yaffe[6] and named a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize.[7]

The following year, she was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and began writing her second book, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life.[3] She spent six years conducting research for her book, including sorting through Jackson's archives at the Library of Congress.[8] Upon its publication, she won the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography[9] and was named a finalist for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography.[10] The book was also named a New York Times Notable Book of 2016[11] and one of Time magazine's top nonfiction book of the year.[12] The following year, she received the 2017 Phi Beta Kappa Society Book Award[13] and Plutarch Award.[14]

Bibliography

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Books

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  • A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction (2010)
  • Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life (2016)

Essays, reporting and other contributions

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  • Foreword to Shirley Jackson: A Companion (2021)
  • "Into the void : a cautionary tale about science raises cautionary questions about fiction". The Critics. Books. The New Yorker. 97 (28): 73–76. September 13, 2021.[a]

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Notes
  1. ^ Reviews, inter alia, Benjamin Labatut's When we cease to understand the world. Online version is titled "A cautionary tale about science raises uncomfortable questions about fiction".

References

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  1. ^ a b "Outcomes: Alumni Stories". parkschool.net. Archived from the original on March 30, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  2. ^ "Columbia Women Write 'New York Times Magazine' Essays on Sexual Harassment". arts.columbia.edu. December 26, 2017. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Ruth Franklin". gf.org. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  4. ^ Bollinger, Heidi E. (Summer 2013). "A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction by Ruth Franklin (review)". The Autobiography Society. 28 (1): 171–174. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  5. ^ Tracy, Marc (December 2, 2010). "Higher Truth". tabletmag.com. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  6. ^ Enslin, Rob (April 17, 2012). "SU English professor wins prestigious Shattuck Prize in criticism". news.syr.edu. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  7. ^ Firestone-Teeter, Naomi (February 9, 2012). "Meet Sami Rohr Prize Finalist…Ruth Franklin". jewishbookcouncil.org. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  8. ^ "Featured Fellow: Ruth Franklin". nyihumanities.org. March 17, 2017. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  9. ^ Zax, Talya (March 17, 2017). "Ruth Franklin Wins National Book Critics Circle Award". forward.com. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  10. ^ "2017 PEN/JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY". pen.org. January 18, 2017. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  11. ^ "100 Notable Books of 2016". The New York Times. November 23, 2016. Archived from the original on December 2, 2019. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  12. ^ Begley, Sarah (November 22, 2016). "The Top 10 Nonfiction Books". Time. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  13. ^ "Ruth Franklin '91 Wins 2017 Phi Beta Kappa Society Book Award". parkschool.net. October 6, 2017. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  14. ^ "Ruth Franklin Wins 2017 Plutarch Award". biographersinternational.org. 2017. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
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