portrait of Ling Ma with bookshelves in background

Author Alum Wins MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’

Stories You May Like

Cornellian Crossword: ‘Far Beyond Cayuga’s Waters’

Warm Up a Chilly Day with Big Red Winter Trivia!

For Two Cornellian Pals, Art Meets Life—Now in Book Form

Ling Ma, MFA ’16, has earned raves for her fiction; a Cornell Tech prof also received one of the coveted fellowships

By Beth Saulnier

Each year, the MacArthur Foundation bestows some of the nation’s most prestigious awards—the fellowships nicknamed “genius grants”—on some two dozen people who have demonstrated exceptional promise and creativity in the arts, research, and other fields.

And, as in several past years, the 2024 recipients include an alum: Chicago-based author Ling Ma, MFA ’16.

“Ma often grounds her fictions in familiar settings and scenarios—corporate offices, a one-night stand, a shopping mall—and then surprises readers with fantastical plot turns,” the foundation observes.

Ma often grounds her fictions in familiar settings and scenarios—corporate offices, a one-night stand, a shopping mall—and then surprises readers with fantastical plot turns.

The MacArthur Foundation

“Delivered with a deadpan sense of humor, these turns throw into relief the surreal aspects of our contemporary condition and our attachments to routines and consumer goods in the face of loss and disconnection.”

Ma’s books include Bliss Montage, a 2022 collection of short stories that was an indie bestseller and earned numerous accolades, including being named to best-of lists by the New York Times, the New Yorker, Vogue, and Kirkus.

Stories You May Like

Cornellian Crossword: ‘Far Beyond Cayuga’s Waters’

Warm Up a Chilly Day with Big Red Winter Trivia!

the cover of "Bliss Montage"

“Each story unspools like a dream sequence privately remembered,” says Vanity Fair, while Esquire calls the book “weird and wonderful, surreal and subversive.”

The collection followed Ma’s widely praised 2018 debut novel, Severance, about a young Chinese-American woman who’s among the few survivors of an apocalyptic fungal infection that has turned most humans into zombie-like figures.

Ma previously taught at the University of Chicago (her undergrad alma mater) and will rejoin its English faculty in 2025. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and elsewhere, and been translated into nine languages.

The author is one of two Cornellians awarded MacArthur grants this year.

The other is Nicola Dell, a faculty member at Cornell Tech whose work focuses on creating and studying new types of computing systems that improve the lives of underserved people in low-income areas.

The MacArthur fellowships carry an unrestricted $800,000 prize, disbursed over the course of five years.

Recent alumni winners include another fiction writer—Manuel Muñoz, MFA ’98—and artist and architect Amanda Williams ’97.

(All images provided.)

Published October 1, 2024


Leave a Comment

Once your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Other stories You may like