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Lindsay Stern

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lindsay Stern
NationalityAmerican
Alma materAmherst College, University of Iowa, Yale University
GenreFiction
Website
www.lindsayoconnorstern.com

Lindsay Stern is an American writer and essayist. She is the author of the novel The Study of Animal Languages and the novella Town of Shadows.[1]

Education

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Stern received a B.A. in English and Philosophy at Amherst College.[2] She graduated with an M.F.A in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop[3] and began a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at Yale University.[4]

Literary career

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Stern published Town of Shadows with Scrambler Books in 2012.[5] She wrote the book while at Amherst College.[6]

Her debut full-length novel, The Study of Animal Languages, was published by Viking in 2019.[7] It follows two professors in a New England campus who are married to each other.[8]

Kirkus Reviews wrote: "Stern’s brittle comedy of highfalutin intellectual theories evolves into a feeling portrait of a gifted man coming face to face with his limitations."[9] Publishers Weekly suggested in a mixed review that the "intellectually teeming prose makes for a thought-provoking novel, though it’s more successful asking questions such as, 'Can voles experience heartbreak?' than depicting people breaking each other’s hearts."[10]

Booklist called it a "jittery, intelligent. . . depiction of relationships in which the parties involved experience a distressing inability to communicate."[11] The New York Journal of Books wrote: "Though she often depends on facile academic stereotypes, Stern reveals the ways in which scientists may try to deploy objective methods, but are ultimately human."[12]

For Washington Independent Review of Books, "What pulls The Study of Animal Languages toward its unexpectedly satisfactory conclusion (though not a by-the-book happy ending) is a series of false steps that require Prue and Ivan to face inner truths that neither character had thought silently to themselves, let alone proclaimed aloud to each other."[13]

Stern writes for Smithsonian Magazine.[14]

Bibliography

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  • Town of Shadows (Scribler Books, 2012)
  • The Study of Animal Languages (Viking, 2019)

References

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  1. ^ Rybeck, Benjamin. "Lindsay Stern". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  2. ^ Mills, Adam (25 September 2012). "Interview: Lindsay Stern on Town of Shadows and Strangeness". Weird Fiction Review. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  3. ^ Weissmiller, Jan. "Live from Prairie Lights: Lindsay Stern in Conversation with Charles D'Ambrosio". University of Iowa. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  4. ^ Gonzalez, Susan (2 May 2019). "Characters struggle to communicate and connect in Ph.D. student's novel". Yale News. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  5. ^ Godby, Ben (13 February 2013). "Town of Shadows by Lindsay Stern". Strange Horizons. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  6. ^ Mills, Adam (25 September 2012). "Interview: Lindsay Stern on Town of Shadows and Strangeness". Weird Fiction Review. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  7. ^ "The Books We're Looking Forward to in 2019". Vanity Fair. 21 December 2018. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  8. ^ "Ten Questions for Lindsay Stern". Poets & Writers. 19 February 2019. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  9. ^ "The Study of Animal Languages". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  10. ^ "The Study of Animal Languages". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  11. ^ Quamme, Margaret. "The Study of Animal Languages". Booklist. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  12. ^ Torti, Sylvia. "The Study of Animal Languages: A Novel". New York Journal of Books. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  13. ^ Macomber, Kristin H. "Review: The Study of Animal Languages". Washington Independent Review of Books. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  14. ^ Stern, Lindsay. "What Can Bonobos Teach Us About the Nature of Language?". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved May 31, 2023.