Claire Vaye Watkins books

Claire Vaye Watkins is an American literary fiction author known for her award-winning debut Battleborn and novels Gold Fame Citrus and I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness. She has won the Story Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Anthologies

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Winesburg, Indiana 2015 Buy
Tales of Two Americas 2017 Buy

Collections

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Battleborn 2012 Buy

Standalone Novels

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Gold Fame Citrus 2015 Buy
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness 2021 Buy

Claire Vaye Watkins grew up in the Mojave Desert and earned her MFA from Ohio State University. Her debut story collection Battleborn, set in the Nevada desert, won a stack of awards and announced a major new voice in American fiction. The stories draw on the landscape and mythology of the American West, a territory she has continued to explore in her novels.

Gold Fame Citrus (2015) imagines a drought-ravaged California, and I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness (2021) blurs fiction and autobiography. Watkins teaches creative writing at the University of California, Irvine.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books has Claire Vaye Watkins written?

Claire Vaye Watkins has written five books across three series.

What was Claire Vaye Watkins's first book?

Claire Vaye Watkins’s first book is Battleborn, published in 2012.

What awards has Claire Vaye Watkins won?

Her debut collection Battleborn (2012) won the Story Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. She was named a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree in 2012 and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2014.

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