The Paris Writers Atelier announced that Katherine J. Chen has received a $5000 Work-in-Progress Award to complete her new book Birthright (working title).

Birthright explores through a revolutionary lens the brutal and strange world of Arthurian literature. Legendary characters are rendered startlingly human, as we follow the lives of Morgan le Fay and her half-brother, King Arthur. While set in a time and world extremely distant from our own, this work will engage timely themes, such as nation-building and genocide, the ties that bind us, and the limits—should they exist—of love. The novel’s writing derives inspiration from works, including Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy and The Giant, O’Brien by Hilary Mantel.

Katherine J. Chen is the author of Joan: A Novel of Joan of Arc (Random House US / Hodder & Stoughton UK), which won the 2023 American Library in Paris Book Award and has been translated into nine languages, and Mary B (Random House US). Her essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, the Times Literary Supplement, The Telegraph, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, Literary Hub, and other publications, with forthcoming work elsewhere. Her next book received a grant from The de Groot Foundation and is under contract with Random House. She is a graduate of Princeton University and Boston University’s MFA program and is pursuing her doctoral degree in English at Brown University.