Kenison, Katrina 1958-

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KENISON, Katrina 1958-

PERSONAL: Born October 3, 1958, in Philadelphia, PA; daughter of John Burton (a dentist) and Marilyn (an office manager; maiden name, Stancerfield) Kenison; married James Harker, 1980 (divorced, 1985); married Steven Moore Lewers (a publisher), September 12, 1987; children: (second marriage) two sons. Education: Graduate of Smith College (cum laude), 1980.

ADDRESSES: Office—Houghton Mifflin Co., 222 Berkeley St., Boston, MA 02166.

CAREER: Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, MA, editor, 1981-88, 1990; editor of Best American Short Stories, published annually, 1991—.

MEMBER: Phi Beta Kappa.

WRITINGS:

(Editor and author of introduction, with Kathleen Hirsch) Mothers: Twenty Stories of Contemporary Motherhood, North Point Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(Editor, with John Updike) The Best American Short Stories of the Century, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2000.

Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor) Rolf Gates, Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga, Anchor Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Author of "A Remembrance," a 150-page biographical essay included in Olive Ann Burns's book of memoirs, Leaving Cold Sassy, Ticknor & Fields (New York, NY), 1992.

SIDELIGHTS: As editor of Houghton Mifflin's annual Best American Short Stories series, Katrina Kenison has helped to bring outstanding fiction to a wide readership. Every year Kenison works with a distinguished guest editor to identify more than one hundred notable short stories and twenty of the "best" that appear in the annual volume. It is Kenison's job to narrow the list to one hundred entries from the many thousands of stories written and published each year in America. The annual volume is a perennial favorite among book buyers, and inclusion in its pages is considered a high honor. A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that the volumes in the series "thoroughly satisfy fans of quality short fiction."

In The Best American Short Stories of the Century, which Kenison edited with John Updike, the task of judging the best stories was monumental. Kenison picked semifinalists from thousands of stories submitted to the publisher's "Best of" series, out of which only fifty-five made Updike's final cut. Reviewers found the volume notable for its diversity: while classics by such writers as Sherwood Anderson, Ernest Hemingway, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver are included, almost half the stories are by women, and the perspectives of black, Jewish, gay, and immigrant writers abound. In Kenison's words, the anthology's stories "are an invaluable record of our century."

Booklist reviewer Brad Hooper noted that the anthology "brims with significance," and a contributor to Publishers Weekly observed that "life on this continent may be brutal, but this extraordinary collection offers up dazzling writing that salves wounds, as well as stories full of the pleasures of life."

Kenison mined more specialized material for Mothers: Twenty Stories of Contemporary Motherhood, edited with Kathleen Hirsch. The anthology, which a Publishers Weekly reviewer considered "well-chosen," presents stories that, in the editors' words, show "the complexities of mothering in America today." The book includes stories by Perri Klass, Barbara Kingsolver, Kate Braverman, Mary Gordon, Sue Miller, and Alice Elliott Dark. In the Austin American-Statesman, Rebecca Thatcher observed that the story collection "is an example of the fact that sometimes fiction is the best preparation for reality." Thatcher concluded that the stories "tell a truth that no parenting manual can approximate."

In Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry, Kenison presents a volume of her own personal essays on the themes of family and spirituality. The book sprang from a Christmas note Kenison wrote to her friends one year, in which she expressed ideas about seeking quiet time for reflection and family togetherness. A Publishers Weekly reviewer found it a "heartfelt" collection of "richly anecdotal musings" that, though occasionally treacly, nevertheless "resonate with honesty and wisdom." A contributortothe Christian Science Monitor wrote: "Ms. Kenison's musings on family life, motherhood, and her own search for balance belong by the bedside, where it can be savored again and again."

Kenison is also editor of Rolf Gates's book Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga. The book explores the ways a daily practice of yoga can transform the perception of other real-life situations. Booklist contributor Jane Tuma found the work "a wonderful book of instructive and encouraging daily meditations" that are "fresh" and "relevant."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Kenison, Katrina, and John Updike, editors, The Best American Short Stories of the Century, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2000.

Kenison, Katrina, and Kathleen Hirsch, editors, Mothers: Twenty Stories of Contemporary Motherhood, North Point Press (New York, NY), 1996.

PERIODICALS

Austin American-Statesman, May 12, 1996, Rebecca Thatcher, "Reality of Mothering," review of Mothers, p. F8.

Booklist, November 1, 1995, Brad Hooper, review of The Best American Short Stories 1995, p. 453; November 15, 1996, Jim O'Laughlin, review of The Best American Short Stories 1996, p. 569; September 1, 1998, Brad Hooper, review of The Best American Short Stories 1998, p. 56B; April 1, 1999, review of The Best American Short Stories of the Century, p. 1384; November 1, 2000, Bonnie Smothers, review of The Best American Short Stories 2000, p. 511; October 15, 2001, James O'Laughlin, review of The Best American Short Stories 2001, p. 380; September 15, 2002, James O'Laughlin, "State of the Art," review of The Best American Short Stories 2002, p. 207; November 1, 2002, Jane Tuma, review of Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga, p. 464.

Christian Science Monitor, May 9, 1996, "Mothers' Literature Offers New Voices on Child-Rearing," p. 13; December 30, 1996, Carl Wood, review of The Best American Short Stories 1996, p. 13; May 24, 2000, "A Mother's Guidebook for the Road Less Traveled," p. 12.

Entertainment Weekly, April 16, 1999, Mark Harris, review of The Best American Short Stories of the Century, p. 12.

Family Circle, April 1, 2000, excerpt from Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry, p. 24.

Insight on the News, July 26, 1999, Rex Roberts, review of The Best American Short Stories of the Century, p. 36.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2000, review of The Best American Short Stories 2000, p. 1303.

Library Journal, February 1, 1994, Eleanor Mitchell, review of The Best American Short Stories 1993, p. 114; November 1, 1994, Eleanor Mitchell, review of The Best American Short Stories 1994, p. 113; May 1, 1996, Helen Rippier Wheeler, review of Mothers, p. 94; October 1, 1996, Adam Mazmanian, review of The Best American Short Stories 1996, p. 129; September 1, 1999, Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, review of The Best American Short Stories 1999, p. 235.

New York Times Book Review, May 9, 1999, Michael Gorra, review of The Best American Short Stories of the Century, p. 8.

Publishers Weekly, September 19, 1994, review of The Best American Short Stories 1994, p. 65; September 18, 1995, review of The Best American Short Stories 1995, p. 123; April 15, 1996, review of Mothers, p. 48; September 8, 1997, review of The Best American Short Stories 1997, p. 56; August 24, 1998, review of The Best American Short Stories 1998, p. 49; March 8, 1999, review of The Best American Short Stories of the Century, p. 47; August 30, 1999, review of The Best American Short Stories 1999, p. 47; April 3, 2000, review of Mitten Strings for God, p. 74; May 1, 2000, review of Mitten Strings for God (audio version), p. 32; August 28, 2000, review of The Best American Short Stories 2000, p. 53; September 3, 2001, review of The Best American Short Stories 2001, p. 58; September 30, 2002, review of The Best American Short Stories 2002, p. 50.

Seattle Times, December 15, 2002, Irene Warner, "Family Ties, Moral Struggles Unite Short-Story Collection," review of The Best American Short Stories 2002, p. K11.