Battleborn - Paperback
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Award-Winning Debut Collection from Claire Vaye Watkins
Battleborn marks the extraordinary debut of Claire Vaye Watkins, Guggenheim Award-winning author who would go on to write Gold Fame Citrus. This collection of ten short stories has earned recognition as one of the most powerful literary debuts in contemporary American fiction.
Critical Acclaim and Awards
Winner of the 2012 Story Prize and recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters 2013 Rosenthal Family Foundation Award, Battleborn established Watkins as a significant voice in American literature. The National Book Foundation named her one of their "5 Under 35" fiction writers of 2012, and she received the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. NPR recognized it among the Best Short Story Collections of 2012, while publications including Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and Time Out New York named it a Best Book of the year.
Stories That Reimagine the American West
Watkins writes fearlessly into the mythology of the American West, creating ten unforgettable stories that span from Gold Rush era to modern-day Nevada. Her characters navigate vast desert spaces, brothels, ghost towns, and remote hermitages, finding redemption through hardship and violence. The collection includes stories of a prostitution ranch transformed by a foreigner's arrival, a prospecting hermit confronting the limits of rugged individualism while rescuing an abused teenager, and a woman reckoning with a degrading encounter in a Vegas hotel room decades later.
Literary Comparisons and Style
Critics have compared Watkins' work to Cormac McCarthy, Denis Johnson, Richard Ford, and Annie Proulx. Battleborn represents a confluence of sensibility and setting, introducing an exceptionally powerful and original literary voice. The collection arcs from sweeping and sublime landscapes to minute personal moments, echoing Nevada's state motto in both title and fierce, undefeated spirit.
About Claire Vaye Watkins
A graduate of the University of Nevada Reno and Ohio State University, Watkins has published in Granta, One Story, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and Glimmer Train. She has received fellowships from Sewanee and Bread Loaf Writers' Conferences. As an assistant professor at Bucknell University and co-director of the Mojave School—a free creative writing workshop for teenagers in rural Nevada—she continues to champion storytelling rooted in the American West.
Contributor(s)
Author
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Award-Winning Debut Collection from Claire Vaye Watkins
Battleborn marks the extraordinary debut of Claire Vaye Watkins, Guggenheim Award-winning author who would go on to write Gold Fame Citrus. This collection of ten short stories has earned recognition as one of the most powerful literary debuts in contemporary American fiction.
Critical Acclaim and Awards
Winner of the 2012 Story Prize and recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters 2013 Rosenthal Family Foundation Award, Battleborn established Watkins as a significant voice in American literature. The National Book Foundation named her one of their "5 Under 35" fiction writers of 2012, and she received the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. NPR recognized it among the Best Short Story Collections of 2012, while publications including Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and Time Out New York named it a Best Book of the year.
Stories That Reimagine the American West
Watkins writes fearlessly into the mythology of the American West, creating ten unforgettable stories that span from Gold Rush era to modern-day Nevada. Her characters navigate vast desert spaces, brothels, ghost towns, and remote hermitages, finding redemption through hardship and violence. The collection includes stories of a prostitution ranch transformed by a foreigner's arrival, a prospecting hermit confronting the limits of rugged individualism while rescuing an abused teenager, and a woman reckoning with a degrading encounter in a Vegas hotel room decades later.
Literary Comparisons and Style
Critics have compared Watkins' work to Cormac McCarthy, Denis Johnson, Richard Ford, and Annie Proulx. Battleborn represents a confluence of sensibility and setting, introducing an exceptionally powerful and original literary voice. The collection arcs from sweeping and sublime landscapes to minute personal moments, echoing Nevada's state motto in both title and fierce, undefeated spirit.
About Claire Vaye Watkins
A graduate of the University of Nevada Reno and Ohio State University, Watkins has published in Granta, One Story, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and Glimmer Train. She has received fellowships from Sewanee and Bread Loaf Writers' Conferences. As an assistant professor at Bucknell University and co-director of the Mojave School—a free creative writing workshop for teenagers in rural Nevada—she continues to champion storytelling rooted in the American West.
Contributor(s)
Author