Karen E. Bender is the author of the short story collection Refund, which was a Finalist for the National Book Award in fiction for 2015,[1] and on the shortlist for the 2015 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award,[2] and the novels A Town of Empty Rooms and Like Normal People; Like Normal People was a Los Angeles Times Bestseller, and a Washington Post Best Book of the Year.
[3][4] Writing about "A Town of Empty Rooms," reviewer S. Kirk Walsh said in the Boston Globe, In the very best of fiction, an intimate, spiritual communion momentarily transpires between reader and author.
In the case of Bender’s novel, these moments occur during these flawless passages of authentic longing and isolation.
Like some of today’s best contemporary realistic authors, Bender skillfully excavates and animates the human fragilities and missteps of life, transporting the reader deeper into the narrative and the interior lives of her characters.
She is on the Core faculty for Alma College and is a Visiting Writer at the MFA program at SUNY Stony Brook.