Anthony Marra

Anthony Marra (born 1984) is an American fiction writer. Marra has won numerous awards for his short stories, as well as his first novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, which was a New York Times best seller.^[1]

Anthony Marra
Reading at the 2016 Gaithersburg Book Festival
Born	1984 (age 40–41) Washington, D.C.
Occupation	Writer
Education	Landon School
Alma mater	University of Southern California Iowa Writers Workshop
Genre	Historical fiction, fiction, short fiction
Notable works	A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, The Tsar of Love and Techno, Mercury Pictures Presents
Website
anthonymarra.net

Personal life

Marra was born in Washington, D.C.,^[2] attended high school in Bethesda, Maryland, and has lived in Eastern Europe, though he now resides in Oakland, California.^[3][4]

Education

Marra attended the Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland^[5] before attending the University of Southern California where he earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing.^[6] He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Between 2011 and 2013, he was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University,^[7] where he also taught as the Jones Lecturer in Fiction.^[3]

Marra has also received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation^[8] and the National Endowment for the Arts.^[2][9]

Writing

Marra has contributed pieces to The Atlantic,^[10] Narrative Magazine,^[11] Granta,^[12] The Rumpus,^[13] New York Times, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and The New Republic.^[14]

Literary awards

Year	Work	Award	Category	Result	Ref
2010	"Chechnya"	Pushcart Prize	—	Winner	[8]
		Narrative Prize	—	Winner	[8]
2012	—	Whiting Award	—	Winner	[15][16]
2013	A Constellation of Vital Phenomena	Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award	Fiction	Winner	[17][18]
		California Book Award	First Fiction	Winner	[19]
		Goodreads Choice Award	Fiction	Nominee	[19]
		National Book Award	Fiction	Nominee	[1]
		National Book Critics Circle Award	John Leonard Prize	Winner	[20]
		Booklist Editors' Choice	Adult Books	Selection	[21]
		New York Times Notable Book of the Year	—	Selection	[22]
2014		Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence	Fiction	Longlist	[23]
		Anisfield-Wolf Book Award	Fiction	Winner	[24][25]
		The Athens Prize for Literature	Περιοδικό (δέ)κατα	Winner	[18]
		Booklist's Notable Books	—	Selection	[26]
		Carla Furstenberg Cohen Fiction Award	Fiction	Winner	[20]
		Dayton Literary Peace Prize	Fiction	Finalist	[27]
		Indies Choice Book Award	Adult Debut	Winner	[28]
		PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize	—	Shortlist	[29]
		Young Lions Fiction Award	—	Finalist	[30]
2015		International Dublin Literary Award	—	Longlist	[20]
2016	"The Grozny Tourist Bureau"	National Magazine Award	Fiction	Winner	[31]
2017	—	Granta's Best of Young American Novelists	—	Selection	[32]
	The Tsar of Love and Techno	Literature.gr Phrase of the Year Prize	—	Winner	[33]
2018		Simpson Family Literary Prize	—	Winner	[34]
[when?]	Self	Jeanette Haien Ballard Writer's Prize	—	Winner	[2]

Bibliography

Books

• —— (2013). A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (hardcover 1st ed.). Random House. ISBN 9780770436407.
• —— (2015). The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories (hardcover 1st ed.). Hogarth Press. ISBN 9780770436438.
• —— (2022). Mercury Pictures Presents (hardcover 1st ed.). Hogarth Press. ISBN 9781399804400.

Short stories

• —— (Fall 2009). "Chechnya". Narrative Magazine.
• —— (May 31, 2012). "The Wolves of Bilaya Forest". The Atlantic.
• —— (April 25, 2017). "Lipari". Granta.

Essays

• —— (July 7, 2011). "Giving Up". The Rumpus.
• —— (May 7, 2013). "When a Sentence Changes Your Life—Then Changes Its Own Meaning". The Atlantic.

Contributions

• xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths, published September 24, 2013 by Penguin Books
• The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2016, published October 4, 2016 by Mariner Books