Bowlaway (McCracken) - Author Bio

Author Bio
• Birth—1966
• Raised—Newton, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., M.A., Boston University; M.F.A., Iowa Writers' Workshop; M.S.L., Drexel University
• Awards—L.L. Winship/PEN-New England Award; finalist, National Book Award
• Currently—lives in Austin, Texas


Elizabeth McCracken, an author and academic, was born in Boston and raised in Newton, Massachusetts. She earned her B.A. and M.A. from Boston University, an M.F.A. from the Writers' Workshop of Iowa, and an M.S. in Library Science from Drexel University. McCracken's brother is Harry McCracken, former PC World magazine editor-in-chief and founder of Technologizer.com.

McCracken's first novel, The Giant's House, was released in 1996 and was a finalist for The National Book Awards. She has several other novels and short story collections to her name. Most recently she published the novel Bowlaway (2019) to wide acclaim.

In 2014, McCracken published her second collection of stories: Thunderstruck & Other Stories. "Hungry", one among the nine stories, won the 2015 Sunday Times (U.K.) EFG Private Bank Short Story Award—the richest prize in the world for a single short story—$20,000. The complete volume of Thunderstruck also won the U.S. Story Prize and was longlisted for the U.S. National Book Award.

Currently, McCracken holds the James Michener Chair of Fiction at the University of Texas-Austin. She and her husband, novelist Edward Carey, have two daughters and live in Austin.

Fun fact
Ann Patchett mentions in an interview for Blackbird at Virginia Commonwealth University, that Elizabeth McCracken is her "editor" and the only person to read her manuscripts as she is writing. (Adapted from the publisher and Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/6/2019.)