RPCV Writer Hits it Big (Kenya)

Today, Tuesday, January 15, 2019, Kristen Roupenian (Kenya 2003-05) first collection of short stories You Know You Want This is being published by Gallery/Scout Press. It has been named one of the most anticipated books of 2019 by Vogue, Huffpost, Entertainment Weekly,and Kirkus Review among others.

Kristen Roupenian, who graduated from Barnard College, holds a PhD in English from Harvard, as well as an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. Her short story, “Cat Person,” published in The New Yorker late in 2017 went viral amid the growing #MetToo movement and made Kristen an overnight writer sensation.

We have written about Kristen previously on this site at: https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/pcv-writer-cat-person-authors-bad-date-story-and-her-date-with-fame-kenya/

Kristen had finished most of this collection of short stories when it sold in a $1.3 million two-book deal the week after “Cat Person” was published. Now HBO is developing an anthology project, according to Ellen Gamerman in an article in today’s WSJ, that could include stories from the new book. Kristen has also sold a screenplay for a slasher movie and brokered a deal to work with film-production company A24.

At 37, Kristen lives today with her girlfriend in Ann Arbor, Michigan and has tried to stay out of debates over her writing. “I went pretty dark after ‘Cat Person,'” she said. “I’m only blinking and emerging into the light right now.”