Kathy Anderson
Kathy Anderson is the author of Bull and Other Stories (Autumn House Press, 2016), which won the 2015 Autumn House Press Fiction Prize. Bull and Other Stories was longlisted for The Story Prize, 2016 and is a finalist for the 2016 Publishing Triangle Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, the 2016 Lambda Literary Awards, and the 2016 Foreword INDIES Award.
She was previously a finalist for the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction and the New Rivers Press Many Voices competition, among other prizes and awards.
She lives in Philadelphia, PA.
Works

Bull and Other Stories (Autumn House Press, 2016)
Very smart, very funny, Kathy Anderson's collection, Bull, reminds us that the essential story-telling element is voice and hers screams to be heard. These are bold, in your face, stories. Anderson shows us the other side of the story - characters we rarely hear from--a son who can't stand that his father has transgendered, funeral drivers, lesbians living and loving in slower, lower Delaware. Anderson writes with an arid dry wit and a dark and haunting sense of humor. She is a superb, deeply rewarding writer.
Sharon Dilworth, Autumn House Press Fiction Editor
Awards and Recognition
- Winner, Autumn House Press Fiction Prize, 2016. Finalist, New Rivers Press Many Voices Competition, 2015. Finalist, Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, 2014.
- Longlisted for The Story Prize, 2016
- Finalist, 2016 Publishing Triangle Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction
- Finalist, 2016 Lambda Literary Awards
- Finalist, 2016 Foreword INDIES Award
Press and Media Mentions
- These short stories pack an emotional punch and leave the reader feeling both pleasure and an immense feeling of loss. The collection asks the reader to move on, but the emotional weight stays with you long after you finish these stories.mid
- Anderson’s greatest achievement is successfully avoiding the redundancy of plot or character that plagues some debut story collections. Her characters range in age from child to elderly, country kids to international travelers. Anderson writes Salty, a “minimum-wage poor” working man, with the same clarity and compassion she has for two sisters taking a final journey together, an abandoned wife, and a highly-educated librarian. These stories bring robust insight and humor to lives that might otherwise go unnoticed.
- These are infectiously readable short stories, and Anderson’s skill at fitting them together so seamlessly is matched by her evident joy in getting straight down to business. . . There's a remarkable no-nonsense intelligence and grace to these funny, ugly stories; they brim with the assurance of an important new literary voice.
- . . . the moments that feel truly new in Bull and Other Stories come when Anderson ascends an implausibility and tips it over into the fabulistic. She has lots of fun burlesquing the well-to-do: a histrionic lesbian power couple tormenting their realtor and each other, a pair of unhappy yuppie parents dining out with their bearded baby girl.