Karen E. Bender Anthologies Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Ploughshares Spring 2005 Guest-Edited by Martin Espada |
2005 |
Buy |
| Granta 91: Wish You Were Here |
2005 |
Buy |
| It’s a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons |
2005 |
Buy |
| Ploughshares Fall 2007 |
2007 |
Buy |
| Astoria to Zion |
2013 |
Buy |
| Goodbye to All That |
2013 |
Buy |
| 27 Views of Wilmington |
2015 |
Buy |
| Love in the Time of Time’s Up: A Short Fiction Anthology |
2022 |
Buy |
Karen E. Bender Non-Fiction#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Choice |
2007 |
Buy |
Non-Fiction#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Choice |
2007 |
Buy |
Short Stories/Novellas#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Anything for Money |
2015 |
Buy |
Short Story Collections#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Refund |
2015 |
Buy |
| The New Order |
2018 |
Buy |
| The Words of Dr. L: And Other Stories |
2026 |
Buy |
Standalone Novels#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Like Normal People |
2000 |
Buy |
| A Town of Empty Rooms |
2013 |
Buy |
Karen E. Bender is an American author whose fiction circles around family, money, and the quiet anxieties of everyday life. She grew up in Los Angeles, studied at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and has published two novels and three short story collections over the past two decades. Her story collection Refund was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2015 and brought her wide recognition for its sharp, often darkly funny stories about people trying to figure out what they are worth in a culture that measures value in dollars. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, and Ploughshares.
Bender’s two novels approach family from different angles. Like Normal People (2000) follows three generations of women grappling with disability, love, and what “normal” actually means. A Town of Empty Rooms (2013) tracks a couple relocating to a small North Carolina town after a personal crisis, where they each stumble into separate communities that test their sense of belonging. Her short fiction has grown more experimental over time: while Refund stays rooted in domestic realism, The New Order (2018) addresses gun violence and political instability, and The Words of Dr. L moves further into speculative territory. She lives in Wilmington, North Carolina, and teaches in Alma College’s low-residency MFA program.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books has Karen E. Bender written?
Karen E. Bender has written sixteen books across six series.
What was Karen E. Bender's first book?
Karen E. Bender’s first book is Like Normal People, published in 2000.
What role does money play in Karen E. Bender's fiction?
Money runs through much of Bender’s work as a way to examine how people measure their own worth. Her collection Refund uses financial pressure – swindlers, desperate artists, families arguing over inheritances – to expose the gap between what people want and what they can afford, both financially and emotionally. In interviews, Bender has said she is drawn to the ways emotion gets expressed through attitudes toward money: the getting, spending, saving, and giving of it.