// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Laura Kasischke a writer? Kasi-chke out her books.

Laura Kasischke
Kasischke at the National Book Critics Circle Awards, March 2012
Born	Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.
Education	Columbia University University of Michigan (MFA)
Notable awards	National Book Critics Circle Award

Laura Kasischke is an American fiction writer and poet. She is best known for writing the novels Suspicious River, The Life Before Her Eyes and White Bird in a Blizzard, all of which have been adapted to film.

Life and work

She was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Kasischke attended the University of Michigan (MFA 1987) and Columbia University. She lives in Chelsea, Michigan, with her husband and son.

She is the Theodore Roethke Distinguished University Professor of English Language and Literature, and of the Residential College at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Kasischke's literary works have been recognized and highlighted at Michigan State University in their Michigan Writers Series.

Her novel The Life Before Her Eyes is the basis for the film of the same name, directed by Vadim Perelman and starring Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood. Kasischke's work is particularly well received in France, where she is widely read in translation. Her novel A moi pour toujours (Be Mine) was published by Christian Bourgois, and was a national best seller.

Her book of poetry Where Now - New and Selected Poems, was published in 2017 by Copper Canyon Press.

Awards

Kasischke was awarded the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry for Space, In Chains. Her work has received the Juniper Prize, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, the Pushcart Prize, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Award for Emerging Writers, and the Beatrice Hawley Award. She is the recipient of two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2005 she was The Frost Place poet in residence and in 2009 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Creative Arts - Poetry She received the 2014 Grand prix des lectrices de Elle.

Bibliography

Poetry

• Brides, Wives, and Widows. American Studies Press. 1990. ISBN 093499658X. Retrieved 18 July 2026.
• Kasischke, Laura (1991). Wild Brides. New York UP.
• — (1995). Housekeeping in a Dream. Carnegie Mellon University Press.
• Fire and Flower (Alice James Books, 1998)
• What It Wasn't (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2002)
• Dance and Disappear. Univ of Massachusetts Press. 2002. ISBN 978-1-55849-352-0. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
• Gardening in the Dark. Ausable Press. 2004. ISBN 978-1-931337-22-9. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
• Lilies Without. Copper Canyon Press. 25 December 2012. ISBN 978-1-61932-072-7. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
• Space, in Chains. Copper Canyon Press. 2011. ISBN 978-1-55659-333-8. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
• The Infinitesimals (Copper Canyon Press, 2014) ISBN 1556594666
• Where Now: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2017) ISBN 9781556595127
• Lightning Falls in Love. Copper Canyon Press. 21 September 2021. ISBN 978-1-55659-636-0. Retrieved 18 July 2026.
• I Was Bonnie and Clyde. Copper Canyon Press. May 19, 2026. ISBN 978-1-55659-731-2. Retrieved 18 July 2026.

Fiction

Novels

• Suspicious River. Houghton Mifflin. 1996.
• White Bird in a Blizzard. Hyperion. 1999. ISBN 978-0-7868-6366-2. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
• The Life Before Her Eyes. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 11 November 2002. ISBN 978-0-547-54145-7. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
• Boy Heaven. HarperCollins. 17 March 2009. ISBN 978-0-06-188057-5. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
• Be Mine (Mariner Books, 2007) ISBN 9780547906843
• Feathered. HarperCollins. 5 May 2009. ISBN 978-0-06-190950-4. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
• In a Perfect World. HarperCollins. 6 October 2009. ISBN 978-0-06-194182-5. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
• Eden Springs. Made In Michigan Writers. Wayne State University Press. 2010. ISBN 978-0-8143-3533-8. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
• The Raising: A Novel. HarperCollins. 15 March 2011. ISBN 978-0-06-204238-5. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
• Mind of Winter. HarperCollins. 25 March 2014. ISBN 978-0-0622-8441-9. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
• The Lifeguard. Red Hen Press. 12 May 2026. ISBN 978-1-63628-288-6. Retrieved 18 July 2026.

Short story collections

• Kasischke, Laura (2013). If a stranger approaches you : stories. Sarabande Books.

Short stories

Title	Year	First published	Reprinted/collected
The barge	2011	Kasischke, Laura (Summer 2011). "The barge". The Florida Review. 35 (1&2): 179–184.	Kasischke, Laura (2013). "The barge". In Henderson, Bill (ed.). The Pushcart Prize XXXVII : best of the small presses 2013. Pushcart Press. pp. 340–344.
Search continues for elderly man	2008	Kasischke, Laura (Sep 2008). "Search continues for elderly man". F&SF. 115 (3): 57–61.

Screenplays

• Suspicious River

External links

• The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor > Bike Ride with Older Boys by Laura Kasischke
• Boston Review > Review by Stephen Burt of Lilies Without by Laura Kasischke
• The Iowa Review > Laura Kasischke > Zeus
• Laura Kasischke: Poetry Foundation > Author