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The magic of real life touched Kelly Link on Thursday. The famous fantasy and speculative fiction writer was named a member of MacArthur and won one of the foundation's $ 625,000 "awesome" grants.
"I think the traditional reaction is to feel that someone has to pull your leg," Link said via email, "even if it sounds like pride." Why would anyone want to bother to shoot my leg?
Link is one of 25 this year's fellows, bringing together artists, scientists, a community activist, a lawyer, an economist, and more. (You'll find the full list here.) She has authored several books of stories, including "Magic for Beginners", "Pretty Monsters" and "Get in Trouble", 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist in fiction. She joins previous winners Jesmyn Ward, Viet Thanh Nguyen, George Saunders and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
For the author known for his fantastic stories, the MacArthur announcement seemed downright surreal.
"Right now, it's like winning the gold ticket," she said, recalling Roald Dahl's classic, "except that nobody asks me to run a chocolate factory."
[Review: Kelly Link’s fantastic, fantastical ‘Get in Trouble’]
Link and her husband, Gavin Grant, live in Massachusetts, where they own Small Beer Press, a publisher of literary fiction, science fiction and fantasy. She acknowledged that $ 625,000 was more than just a year's worth for their independent publishing house.
"If we made so many profits, we had to change our name to Slightly Larger Beer Press," she said.
The MacArthur grant will be paid in quarterly installments over five years.
"I do not know yet what it means for Small Beer," said Link. "But I really breathed a sigh of relief when I thought about how I was going to pay the bills the next year. This allows me to continue writing the kind of story I most want to write. The same goes for the publication of the kind of fiction that we had the chance to publish. "
Link is currently working on a novel. "It takes a little more time to boil," she says.
Ron Charles writes about books for the Washington Post and hosts TotallyHipVideoBookReview.com.
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