Jaimy Gordonane Arroyo
Fiction

Jaimy Gordon graduated from Antioch College, and received her Doctor of Arts from Brown University. She has lived in Southern California and West Virginia and was Writer-in-Residence with the Rhode Island Council on the Arts. Gordon has taught at Brown University, Roger Williams College, and Eastern Washington State College.

Gordon's second novel, She Drove Without Stopping, brought her an Academy-Institute Award for her fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Gordon's third novel, Bogeywoman, was on the Los Angeles Times Best Books List for 2000, as well as on Context's booksellers' list of the Most Important Works of Fiction published that year.

Ultimately reaching the pinnacle of success, Gordon's fourth novel, Lord of Misrule, won the 2010 National Book Award for fiction. Upon receiving this prestigious award, she told the crowd ''I'm totally unprepared, and I'm totally surprised.'' Lord of Misrule is a brilliant novel that captures the dusty, dark, and beautiful world of small-time horse racing, where trainers, jockeys, grooms and grifters vie for what little luck is offered at a run-down West Virginia track. Gordon's short story, ''A Night's Work,'' which shares a number of characters with her novel, Lord of Misrule, appeared in Best American Short Stories 1995.

Gordon currently teaches at Western Michigan University and in the Prague Summer Program for Writers.