Anna Badkhen

Anna Badkhen is the author of seven books, most recently Bright Unbearable Reality, longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award and for the 2023 Jan Michalski Prize for Literature. Her awards include the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Barry Lopez Visiting Writer in Ethics and Community Fellowship, and the Joel R. Seldin Award from Psychologists for Social Responsibility for writing about civilians in war zones. Her forthcoming debut novel was recognized by the James Jones First Novel fellowship. 

Anna Badkhen's essays appear in New York Review of BooksGrantaHarper’sThe Paris Review, EmergenceOrion, the New York Times, and various anthologies, and her fiction in AGNIZyzzyvaConjunctionsThe CommonScalawag. She has guest-edited prose and poetry for publications such as Emergence Magazine and Nautilus. She holds an MFA in fiction from Randolph College. 

Anna Badkhen was born in the Soviet Union and is a US citizen.