American Book Awards
1 appearances
-
Edition 12 (1991) Winner
Lucia Berlin
ルチア・バーリン
Lucia Berlin
Profile
- Gender
- Female
- Born
- 1936-11-12 （Juneau, Alaska）
- Died
- 2004-11-12 （Marina del Rey, California） age 68
- Nationality
- United States
- Languages
- English
- Residence History
- Chile (spent much of youth) → New Mexico → Mexico → New York City → Northern and Southern California → Colorado (including Boulder)
Career
- Occupations
- short story writer, teacher (visiting/adjunct)
- Active Years
- 1960-2004
- Affiliations
- Naropa University (Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics), University of Colorado, Boulder
- Influenced By
- Ed Dorn, Raymond Carver (often compared to), Richard Yates (often compared to)
- Nominations
- A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories — finalist for the 2015 Kirkus Prize
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Jack London Short Prize | My Jockey (short story) | — | — | winner |
| 1991 | American Book Award | Homesick | — | Before Columbus Foundation | winner |
| — | National Endowment for the Arts (Fellowship) | — | — | National Endowment for the Arts | recipient |
Jack London Short Prize
1985
Work:
My Jockey (short story)
Result:
winner
American Book Award
1991
Work:
Homesick
Organization:
Before Columbus Foundation
Result:
winner
National Endowment for the Arts (Fellowship)
Organization:
National Endowment for the Arts
Result:
recipient
Awards & Nominations
Works
Major Works
A Manual for Cleaning Women
1977 short story collection / short fictionA collection of short stories focusing on everyday labor, family, illness, and addiction. The stories are often set in urban workspaces and medical settings; notable for concise, vivid scenes, compassion, and wry humor.
workfamilyillnessmoments of everyday life
Homesick: New & Selected Stories
1990 short story collectionA selected and new stories volume collecting many of Berlin's notable short pieces, depicting occupations, family life, and a peripatetic existence with precise attention.
mobilityworking-class lifefamily complexities
So Long: Stories, 1987-1992
1993 short story collectionA collection of stories from 1987–1992 focusing on people at the margins of life with empathetic observation.
marginalizationrecovery and loss
Where I Live Now: Stories, 1993-1998
1999 short story collectionA volume of stories written between 1993 and 1998 notable for intimate and affecting depictions of personal moments.
fragments of everyday lifepersonal history
Phantom Pain: Sixteen Stories
1984 short story collectionAn early collection of stories exploring pain, loss, and fragments of memory.
painmemory
Bibliography
- A Manual for Cleaning Ladies
- Angels Laundromat: Short Stories
- Legacy
- Phantom Pain: Sixteen Stories
- Safe & Sound
- Homesick: New & Selected Stories
- So Long: Stories, 1987-1992
- Where I Live Now: Stories, 1993-1998
- A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories (2015, posthumous)
- Evening in Paradise: More Stories (2018, posthumous)
- Welcome Home: A Memoir with Selected Photographs and Letters (2018, posthumous)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- conversational, direct proseeconomical yet lyrical descriptionnarrative mixing humor and compassion
- Recurring Motifs
- depictions of workplacesmedical settings and illnessmobility and unsettlednesscomplex family relationships
Health
-
scoliosis (crooked spine)生涯を通じて（特に晩年に悪化）Spinal curvature affected her lungs; she used an oxygen tank from 1994 onward and was forced to retire as her condition worsened.
-
lung cancer晩年Underwent radiation therapy which significantly affected her strength and quality of life.
Legacy
She had a devoted but small readership during her life. Posthumously, the 2015 selected stories volume A Manual for Cleaning Women made her an international literary figure and bestseller, prompting reevaluation of her place among important 21st-century short story writers.
Academic Societies
- No specific academic society listed
Archives
- Naropa University audio archive (class recordings)
- Black Sparrow Books-related archives
In Popular Culture
- Became a New York Times bestseller in 2015 (posthumous revival)
- Ranked in the New York Times' '100 Best Books of the 21st Century' (2024)
Quotes
-
She writes with a guiding intelligent compassion about family, love, work; in a style that is direct, plain, clear, and non-judgmental; with a sense of humor and a gift for the gestures and the words that reveal character.
Source: Lydia Davis (foreword) (2015) -
In the field of short fiction, Lucia Berlin is one of America's best kept secrets.
Source: critical review (excerpt) (2015)
Trivia
- Born and died on the same calendar day (November 12).
- Published 76 short stories in her lifetime.
- Used an oxygen tank from 1994 onward.
- Achieved major posthumous recognition in 2015 with A Manual for Cleaning Women.