About
Edward Hamlin is the winner of the Nelson Algren Award, the Iowa Short Fiction Award, the Nelligan Prize and the Colorado Book Award. Pulitzer Prize finalist Karen Russell called his prizewinning short story collection, NIGHT IN ERG CHEBBI AND OTHER STORIES, “sweeping and intimate and awesomely confident.” Publishers Weekly named NIGHT IN ERG CHEBBI a “memorable read from a writer with considerable talent.” About Hamlin’s debut novel, National Book Award finalist Ben Fountain said: “SONATA IN WAX is a terrific novel—immersive, compelling, smart, the story propelled by a cast of complex, full-bodied characters and the author's absolute mastery of the musical worlds he conjures…I'm knocked flat with admiration for this splendid novel.” Kirkus Reviews called it “a deeply realized tale of the power of music and the anonymity of history.”
Edward Hamlin's short stories can be found in journals like Ploughshares, Missouri Review, Colorado Review, Bellevue Literary Review and in press outlets like the Chicago Tribune. His work has garnered three Pushcart Prize nominations and has been a finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Award, the Grace Paley Award, the Narrative Story Prize, the Raymond Carver Award and others. His work has been performed on stage and published by Audible.
A New York native and an accomplished composer, Edward Hamlin spent his formative years in Chicago and now lives in the Colorado foothills. He is represented by Deborah Schneider of Gelfman-Schneider/ICM, deborah@gelfmanschneider.com.
Featured Work
SONATA IN WAX
"A deeply realized tale of the power of music and the anonymity of history.” — Kirkus Reviews
As the Great War rages, a French pianist sits down to play a breathtakingly original sonata—a piece so strange and inspired that it could change the course of classical music. The moment is captured on wax cylinders, the recording medium of the day. But in the tumult of war the fragile cylinders vanish, and with them the identities of the brilliant composer and the virtuoso pianist.
A century later, five timeworn wax cylinders land on the desk of Ben Weil, a revered classical music producer. From the moment he first plays them in his Chicago studio, Ben knows he’s in the presence of genius. The dazzling piece is fifty years ahead of its time, more Coltrane than Debussy—how could it be?
Brought low by a painful divorce, Ben throws himself into unlocking the sonata’s mysteries. But when the renowned pianist Ana Clara Matta stumbles upon the work and takes credit for unearthing it, he’s swept into a lie that could shatter his reputation and his private life at a stroke. Somehow Ben must find a way to tell the truth—a dangerous quest that will lead him not only to the sonata’s surprising origins, but to his own.
Other Works
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NIGHT IN ERG CHEBBI
2015
Awards and Recognition
- Nelson Algren Award (2020)
- Iowa Short Fiction Award (2015)
- Colorado Book Award (2016)
- Northern Colorado Writers Short Story Award (2015)
- Nelligan Prize (2013)
