Peter Orner

Peter Orner is an American writer of fiction. He is the author of a novel, "The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo" (2006) and the short story collection "Esther Stories" (2001). His short fiction has been published in the Atlantic Monthly and the Paris Review, as well as the Pushcart Prize Anthology, New Sudden Fiction: Short-Short Stories From America and Beyond and "The Best American Short Stories 2001". His short story "The Raft" is being made into a short film starring Ed Asner.

Orner also edited "Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives," a collection of true stories about undocumented workers in America, which was published by McSweeney's in April 2008.

A resident of San Francisco, he is on the faculty of the graduate writing program at San Francisco State University.

Orner was born in Chicago. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1990 and later collected a law degree from Northeastern University and an MFA from the famed Iowa Writer's Workshop. His older brother is Eric Orner, the creator of the comic "The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green."

Orner was also a counselor, trip leader, and village director at Camp Nebagamon, an overnight camp in Northern Wisconsin.

Honors

*Virginia Commonwealth University First Novelist Award (2007)
*Guggenheim Fellowship (2006)
*Lannan Literary Fellowship (2006)
*Bard Fiction Prize (2007)
*Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Prize Best Fiction (2007)
*Rome Prize in Literature, American Academy of Arts and Letters (2002-2003)
*Samuel Goldberg Award for Jewish Fiction
*New York Times Notable Book (for Esther Stories)
*Finalist, PEN Hemingway Award
*Finalist, Young Lions Fiction Prize (2002)
*Finalist, John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize (2006)

External links

* [http://www.peterorner.net/ Orner's home page]
* [http://www.twbookmark.com/authors/69/3435/interview22756.html An interview with Orner]
* [http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v5n2/fiction/orner_p/shikongo-intro.htm Excerpts from "The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo"]
* [http://www.bard.edu/bfp/orner.shtml 2007 Bard Fiction Prize]
* [http://www.news.vcu.edu/vcu_view/pages.aspx?nid=2124 VCU First Novelist Prize]
* [http://store.mcsweeneys.net/index.cfm/fuseaction/catalog.detail/object_id/5e337492-1673-48ce-bedc-9352c9d39d84/UndergroundAmericabrNarrativesofUndocumentedLives.cfm Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives]