Anthologies#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection |
2004 |
Buy |
| The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories |
2004 |
Buy |
| The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers |
2005 |
Buy |
| Feeling Very Strange |
2006 |
Buy |
| The Best American Travel Writing 2007 |
2007 |
Buy |
| The New Granta Book of the American Short Story |
2007 |
Buy |
| Not Normal, Illinois |
2009 |
Buy |
| Dedicated to the People of Darfur |
2009 |
Buy |
| The Secret History of Science Fiction |
2009 |
Buy |
| The Legacy of David Foster Wallace |
2012 |
Buy |
| The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2012 |
2012 |
Buy |
| The Best American Short Stories 2012 |
2012 |
Buy |
| Fakes: An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux-Lectures, Quasi-Letters, “Found” Texts, and Other Fraudulent Artifacts |
2012 |
Buy |
| My Ideal Bookshelf |
2012 |
Buy |
| Life Is Short – Art Is Shorter: In Praise of Brevity |
2015 |
Buy |
| What We Do Now: Standing Up For Your Values in Trump’s America |
2017 |
Buy |
| Conceptualisms |
2022 |
Buy |
| Growing Up Chicago |
2022 |
Buy |
Non-Fiction#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Braindead Megaphone |
2007 |
Buy |
| Congratulations, By the Way |
2014 |
Buy |
Short Stories/Novellas#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Red Bow |
2003 |
N/A |
| CommComm |
2005 |
Buy |
| Fox 8 |
2013 |
Buy |
Short Story Collections#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| CivilWarLand in Bad Decline |
1996 |
Buy |
| Pastoralia |
2000 |
Buy |
| In Persuasion Nation |
2006 |
Buy |
| Home |
2011 |
Buy |
| Liberation Day: Stories |
2022 |
Buy |
Standalone Novels#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip |
2000 |
Buy |
| The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil |
2005 |
Buy |
| Lincoln in the Bardo |
2017 |
Buy |
| A Swim in a Pond in the Rain |
2021 |
Buy |
| Vigil |
2026 |
Buy |
George Saunders is one of the most celebrated American short story writers of his generation. His collections — from CivilWarLand in Bad Decline in 1996 to Liberation Day in 2022 — are known for their absurdist humor, corporate satire, and unexpected emotional depth. Characters in Saunders’ fiction often find themselves trapped in bizarre theme parks, dystopian workplaces, or pharmaceutical trials, yet the stories consistently arrive at moments of genuine tenderness.
His 2017 novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which tells the story of Abraham Lincoln grieving his son Willie through a chorus of ghosts in a graveyard, won the Man Booker Prize. Saunders has also written essay collections, children’s books, and A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, a study of Russian short stories that doubles as a meditation on the craft of fiction. His influence on contemporary American writing is hard to overstate.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books has George Saunders written?
George Saunders has written 33 books across five series.
What was George Saunders's first book?
George Saunders’s first book is CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, published in 1996.
What awards has George Saunders won?
George Saunders won the 2017 Man Booker Prize for Lincoln in the Bardo and has received numerous other honors including a MacArthur Fellowship, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, and the Story Prize.