Kristen Arnett
Kristen Arnett is an American fiction author and essayist. Her debut novel, Mostly Dead Things, was a New York Times bestseller.
Early life and education
Arnett was born and raised in Orlando, Florida, where she attended Winter Park High School. She graduated from Rollins College with a bachelor's degree in English and received her master's degree in library and information science from Florida State University. Arnett was a fellow in the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices in 2013.Career
Arnett was a librarian at Rollins College and the Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law at Barry University. She is a columnist for Literary Hub and was selected as a Shearing Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute for the spring 2020 semester.Writing
Her first collection of short fiction, Felt in the Jaw, was published by Split Lip Press and received the 2017 Coil Book Award. Arnett is a self-described "7-Eleven scholar" and celebrated the debut of Felt in the Jaw at a 7-Eleven store in Orlando. The short story collection focuses on living as a lesbian in Florida.Arnett's debut novel, Mostly Dead Things, which was published by Tin House in June 2019, was a New York Times bestseller and received critical acclaim. The novel was heralded by literary critic Parul Sehgal as her "song of the summer" and by The New Yorker
Arnett's novel, With Teeth, was published by Penguin Random House in 2022.
Arnett's stories have appeared in online and print publications including Guernica, North American Review, ''Oprah Daily, and Gay Magazine.'' Her essays have been published in various venues including The Rumpus, ''Electric Literature, and Orlando Weekly.
Arnett's third novel, Stop Me If You've Heard This One'', was published in March 2025 by Riverhead Books. It was shortlisted for the Published Novels category of the 2025 Comedy Women in Print Prize.