Natalie S. Harnett

Short Bio: Natalie S. Harnett has an MFA from Columbia in Fiction and has been awarded an Edward Albee Fellowship, a Summer Literary Seminars Fellowship, and a Vermont Studio Center Writer’s Grant. Her fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It has also been a finalist for the Mary McCarthy Prize, the Mid-List Press First Series Award, the Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award, and The Ray Bradbury Short Story Fellowship.  Her publications include the Chicago Quarterly Review, The Irish Echo, & The New York Times. Her debut novel, THE HOLLOW GROUND, won the John Gardner Book Award, the Appalachian Book of the Year Award & was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. She lives on Long Island and Northeastern PA with her family.

Long Bio: I grew up in Queens, New York and for as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to write. I think my love for language came at a young age and was fostered by the many afternoons I spent reading early twentieth century poems to my maternal grandmother. My family’s love of made-up words and my paternal grandmother’s broken English—she was an ethnic German immigrant from Slovenia—also helped.

Though I did well in school, I had a poor understanding of grammar until I taught it to myself during my first year of graduate school. Oddly enough, I think my lack of knowledge of grammar and punctuation gave me a kind of freedom with language that I would not have otherwise felt or expressed. It seems strange to say, but I’m actually glad I didn’t learn grammar until I was an adult!

While attending Columbia for an MFA in Fiction, I was awarded a Teaching Writing Fellowship and that’s the work I’ve been doing since. I've taught or tutored writing at dozens of Long Island libraries as well as at Columbia, Baruch College, Polytechnic University, Nassau Community College, and the US Merchant Marine Academy. I have been awarded an Edward Albee Fellowship, a Summer Literary Seminars Fellowship, the Leapfrog Press Prize, and a Vermont Studio Center Writer’s Grant. My fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It has also been a finalist for the Mary McCarthy Prize, the UNO Press Lab Prize, the Mid-List Press Novel Award, the Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers, and The Ray Bradbury Short Story Fellowship.  My publications include the Chicago Quarterly Review, The Irish Echo and The New York Times.

THE HOLLOW GROUND, my debut novel, won the John Gardner Fiction Book Award, the Appalachian Book of the Year Award & was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Named Best Book of the Year by the Providence Journal, it was also an Amazon and Audible Best Seller; a Goodreads Book Group Worthy title; a LIBRARY JOURNAL's "Debuts with Buzz" Selection; a SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE's '5 Books to Read This Month' Selection; and a NYC Irish Arts Center 2015 Book Day Pick.

Currently, my greatest challenge and joy is balancing work, writing and motherhood.