NEWS! NEWS! NEWS!
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Joan's new collection DISPLACED PERSONS: STORIES has won the 2022 New American Fiction Prize and will be published in May 2024 by New American Press. The judge was Weike Wang. Stay tuned for updates!

Joan's newest story, "Wild Animals" will appear in the June/July issue of New England Review.

"The Book of Splendor" named a 'Distinguished Story' in the 2018 BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES. Read it here.

Joan leegant

Joan Leegant is the author of a novel, Wherever You Go (W.W. Norton) and a story collection, An Hour in Paradise (W.W. Norton), which won the Winship PEN New England Book Award and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick. Joan has taught at Harvard, Oklahoma State, Cornish College of the Arts, and Bar-Ilan University in Israel where she was the visiting writer from 2007-2013. From 2014-2016 she was the writer-in-residence at Hugo House in Seattle. She lives in Newton, Massachusetts. 
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PEN/NEW ENGLAND BOOK AWARD
FINALIST, NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD
BARNES & NOBLE 'DISCOVER GREAT NEW WRITERS' PICK

 “Prose of fine-boned clarity and compassion.” New York Times

“A gifted creator of people and worlds.” Publishers Weekly

“[A] richly contemplative collection by turns comical and disquieting.”
​Barnes & Noble 

"These stories cut deep and carry weight." - Boston Globe

"Each story is a gift, a guided tour of a perfect small calamity of the heart and soul." Elinor Lipman

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“Timely and brave. Leegant is a masterful weaver.” Miami Herald

“A cautionary tale about the danger of a narrow ideology.” Times Literary Supplement

“Not since the warring Zuckerman brothers in Philip Roth's The CounterLife have the exigencies of settler politics and secular desires been so cogently addressed in a work of fiction. Who says the novel has lost its relevance? This one should be required reading.”  Jonathan Wilson, author of A Palestine Affair

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