Kali Fajardo-Anstine is the author of the widely acclaimed Sabrina & Corina (One World, 2019), a finalist for the National Book Award, the PEN/Bingham Prize, The Clark Prize, The Story Prize, the Saroyan International Prize and winner of an American Book Award. She is the 2021 recipient of the biennial Addison M. Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has been awarded fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell, Hedgebrook, and Tin House. Her work has been honored with the Denver Mayor’s Award for Global Impact in the Arts and the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association Reading The West Award. Sabrina & Corina was included on several end of year lists, including the American Library Association and the New York Public Library.
Fajardo-Anstine’s writing has been published in The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE, O the Oprah Magazine, The American Scholar, Boston Review, and elsewhere. Her stories have been translated into numerous languages including Japanese, Italian, German, Slovenian, Spanish, and Turkish. Fajardo-Anstine was born in Denver, Colorado and is the second eldest of seven siblings. She dropped out of high school weeks into her senior year, earning her GED and going on to graduate with a BA in English and Minor in Chicana/o Studies from Metropolitan State University of Denver. She holds an MFA from the University of Wyoming and worked for over a decade as an independent bookseller at West Side Books in North Denver.