Kim Edwards

Kim Edwards was born and raised in the small town of Skaneateles, New York, located in the Finger Lakes region. She is a bestselling literary fiction author, known for her intricate and deeply moving stories. After completing her graduate work at the University of Iowa, where she received an MFA in Fiction and an MA in Linguistics, Edwards spent several years teaching in Asia with her husband. During this time, she began to publish short fiction and won the Nelson Algren Award in 1990 for her story "Sky Juice."

Edwards' short stories and essays have appeared in numerous periodicals, including Ploughshares, Zoetrope, Anteaus, Story, and The Paris Review. Her work has been recognized with many honors, including a National Magazine Award for Excellence in Fiction and a Pushcart Prize. Two of her stories have been performed at Symphony Space and broadcast on Public Radio International. She has also received support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Kentucky Arts Council, among others. Her story collection The Secrets of a Fire King was short-listed for the 1998 Pen/Hemingway Award.

Edwards is the author of several critically acclaimed and bestselling novels, including "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" and "The Lake of Dreams." "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" was a #1 New York Times Best Seller in the United States and was translated into thirty-eight languages. It won the Kentucky Literary Award for Fiction in 2005. Her other honors include the Whiting Award, the British Book Award, and USA Today’s Book of the Year. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has taught widely in the US and Asia. She currently resides in Lexington, Kentucky.