Claire Vaye Watkins is an American author and academic. Her book of short stories Battleborn, won The Story Prize, among other awards. In 2012 the National Book Foundation named her a "5 under 35" honoree. Of her parents' influence on her award-winning collection, Watkins has said, “My father’s story is more in the collective subconscious but my mom’s is closer to the project.” In 2014 Watkins was the recipient of the Guggenheim Award. Her debut novel, Gold Fame Citrus, was published in 2015. Watkins currently teaches creative writing at Bennington College.
Watkins published Battleborn, a collection of short stories, in 2012 with publishing house Riverhead. The New York Times reviewed her collection as being "brutally unsentimental," writing that "Watkins’s characters wish to make sense of their pain, but also to be assured that they are not alone in it." The New Yorker wrote that Watkins was within a genre entirely new: "Nevada Gothic".Battleborn won many prizes, including The Story Prize, The Dylan Thomas Prize, The New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, The Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and The Silver Pen Award from the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. Watkins questioned her motives of publishing Battleborn in the 2016 Winter Issue of Tin House in her essay, "On Pandering," which appeared to critical reception and, according to the New Yorker, was "discussed heatedly for weeks, even months, thereafter." "So, natural then," writes Watkins, "that Battleborn was well-received by the white male establishment: it was written for them. The whole book’s a pander." Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams called it a "must-read essay" and Jia Tolentino of Jezebel.com called it "fiery" and "unusually honest," suggesting "it will be talked about for quite some time." Originally, "On Pandering" was given as a lecture during the 2015 Tin House Summer Writers' Workshop. Gold Fame Citrus, published in 2015 by Riverhead, is a speculative fiction novel focused on the Californian drought. It is Watkins' second book and first novel. The work received positive reviews. Slate called her debut novel, "enthralling," and The Guardian praised Watkins' ability to render landscape as extraordinary. In the New York Times Sunday Book Review, reviewer Emily St. John Mandel wrote that " great pleasure of the book is Watkins’s fearlessness." The book received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly which said it was "packed with persuasive detail, luminous writing, and a grasp of the history needed to tell a story that is original yet familiar, strange yet all too believable." A finalist for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, Watkins was also selected as one of the National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35."
Family
She is the daughter of Martha Watkins, who Watkins describes as “this incredible dynamo, a great bullshitter", and Paul Watkins, a former member of Charles Manson's "Family". Watkins is married to writer Derek Palacio. Together they have a daughter.
