{"id":41899,"date":"2024-10-01T13:41:28","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T17:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=41899"},"modified":"2024-10-03T11:36:24","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T15:36:24","slug":"ma-genius-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/ma-genius-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Alum Wins MacArthur \u2018Genius Grant\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ling Ma, MFA \u201916, has earned raves for her fiction; a Cornell Tech prof also received one of the coveted fellowships<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Beth Saulnier<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each year, the MacArthur Foundation bestows some of the nation\u2019s most prestigious awards\u2014the fellowships nicknamed \u201cgenius grants<\/a>\u201d\u2014on some two dozen people who have demonstrated exceptional promise and creativity in the arts, research, and other fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, as in several past years, the 2024 recipients include an alum: Chicago-based author Ling Ma, MFA \u201916<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMa often grounds her fictions in familiar settings and scenarios\u2014corporate offices, a one-night stand, a shopping mall\u2014and then surprises readers with fantastical plot turns,\u201d the foundation observes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Ma often grounds her fictions in familiar settings and scenarios\u2014corporate offices, a one-night stand, a shopping mall\u2014and then surprises readers with fantastical plot turns.<\/p>\nThe MacArthur Foundation<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDelivered 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ma\u2019s books include Bliss Montage<\/em><\/a>, 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<\/em>, the New Yorker<\/em>, Vogue<\/em>, and Kirkus<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"the<\/figure>
\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach story unspools like a dream sequence privately remembered,\u201d says Vanity Fair<\/em>, while Esquire<\/em> calls the book \u201cweird and wonderful, surreal and subversive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The collection followed Ma\u2019s widely praised 2018 debut novel, Severance<\/em><\/a>, about a young Chinese-American woman who\u2019s among the few survivors of an apocalyptic fungal infection that has turned most humans into zombie-like figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/em>, the Atlantic<\/em>, and elsewhere, and been translated into nine languages.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The author is one of two Cornellians<\/a> awarded MacArthur grants this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other is Nicola Dell<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MacArthur fellowships carry an unrestricted $800,000 prize, disbursed over the course of five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent alumni winners include another fiction writer\u2014Manuel Mu\u00f1oz, MFA \u201998<\/a>\u2014and artist and architect Amanda Williams \u201997<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(All images provided.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published October 1, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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