Disciplines: Literature – fiction

Jessamine Chan

Disciplines: Literature – fiction
Region: Oak Park, IL
Residencies: 2025

Jessamine Chan is the author of The School for Good Mothers, which was a New York Times bestseller, a Read with Jenna/TODAY Show Book Club pick, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Carnegie Medal, and one of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2022. Translations in twenty languages have been published or are forthcoming.

Chan’s short stories have appeared in Tin House and Epoch. Her work has received support from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Wurlitzer Foundation, the Jentel Foundation, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, the Anderson Center, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation.

While at MacDowell, Chan completed the first draft of her second novel, Evening Partners. The last six chapters of the draft were written during her month in Banks Studio.

Studios

Banks

Jessamine Chan worked in the Banks studio.

Banks, an ell on the north end of the Lodge dormitory, was first used as an artist’s studio in 1970. Since then, it has played host to an extraordinary list of writers working in several disciplines. In all seasons, Fellows have enjoyed the pastoral view through the French doors facing a field…

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