Jaimy Gordon

Gordon grew up in Baltimore, studied at Antioch College, and earned a doctorate in creative writing from Brown University, then taught for over three decades at Western Michigan University while publishing acclaimed but relatively little-read experimental fiction, including She Drove Without Stopping and Bogeywoman.

Lord of Misrule (2010), set at a rundown West Virginia racetrack, follows a claiming-race horse named the Lord of Misrule through four races and the grooms, trainers, and gamblers scraping by around him, narrated in dense, dialect-rich prose drawn from Gordon's own years around racetracks; published by a tiny press with a print run of only a few thousand copies, it won the National Book Award in a widely reported upset over better-known finalists.

The prize brought Gordon national attention for the first time in her sixties, and she has continued writing and teaching since, remaining based in Kalamazoo, Michigan.