Karen Russell isn’t exactly an unsung author.
Quite the opposite, actually. Though a teller of deeply weird tales, Russell was almost instantly embraced by the literary mainstream. Arriving on the short story scene in the mid-aughts, she quickly scored publications in The New Yorker, Zoetrope: All Story, and various other esteemed markets. Books followed, along with bestseller status and numerous accolades, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her debut novel. In short, she’s an acclaimed, popular writer.
But this I submit: she’s not as popular as she should be. Karen Russell is a writer with a big readership who deserves a huge one. Her imagination is that versatile, that soaring, that vast.