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Biography
Claire Stanford's fiction has appeared in Black Warrior Review, The Rumpus, Third Coast, Redivider, and Tin House Flash Fridays, among other publications; her nonfiction has appeared in Lit Hub, Electric Lit, The Millions, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Her work has received fellowships and grants from the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, and the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences.
She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota and a PhD in English from UCLA. Born and raised in Berkeley, she currently lives in Reno, where she is an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Her debut novel, Happy for You, was published by Viking in 2022 and was named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.
Education (4)
University of California, Los Angeles: Ph.D., English 2022
University of California, Los Angeles: M.A., English 2018
University of Minnesota: M.F.A., Creative Writing (Fiction) 2012
Yale University: B.A., English 2006
Areas of Expertise (5)
Science Fiction
Creative Writing
Speculative Fiction
Narrative Form
Genre and the Body
Accomplishments (5)
Winner, Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, University of Rochester (professional)
2023
Winner, Women Writing the West WILLA Literary Award, Multiform Fiction. (professional)
2023
College of Liberal Arts Dean’s Award, Creative Activity, University of Nevada (professional)
2023
University of California Office of the President Dissertation Year Fellowship, UCLA (professional)
2020
Mellon-EPIC Fellowship in Teaching Excellence, Community Learning, UCLA (professional)
2020
Links (1)
Languages (2)
- English
- Spanish
Media Appearances (3)
Claire Stanford, author of "Happy for You"
WXXI News online
2023-12-01
Can happiness be measured? Should it be measured? If yes, how can it be done? In her novel, “Happy for You,” Claire Stanford tells the story of a young woman hired by a big tech company focused on revolutionizing happiness.
Big Tech Wants to Commodify Your Happiness
The New York Times online
2022-04-19
“If a simple algorithm could tell you how happy you were — objectively how happy — wouldn’t you want to know?” a character asks early in “Happy for You,” Claire Stanford’s engrossing and clever first novel. Evelyn Kominsky Kumamoto, the book’s deeply ambivalent narrator, isn’t so sure. Her voice carries us through questions about happiness, technology’s role in our lives, the importance of the body and how one might find a sense of contentment and belonging in the world.
Episode 405: Change vs. Stasis: Character Development in Literary Fiction – Interview with Claire Stanford
DIY MFA online
2022-04-13
Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Claire Stanford. We’ll be talking about her debut novel Happy for You, a contemporary adult fiction novel grappling with tech, happiness, and what living authentically really means.
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