George Saunders (born December 2, 1958) is an American writer, acclaimed for his two books, Civilwarland in Bad Decline (1996) and Pastoralia (2000), both collections of short stories. He is also the author of the children's book The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip (2000). His first novella, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, will be published in 2005. His writing has also appeared in The New Yorker and Harper's. He won the National Magazine Award for fiction in 1994, 1996, 2000, and 2004 and second prize in the O. Henry Awards in 1997.

Saunders was born and raised on the south side of Chicago. In 1981, he received a B.S. in geophysical engineering from Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. In 1988, he obtained an M.A. in creative writing from Syracuse University.

From 1989 to 1996 he worked for Radian International, an environmental engineering firm in Rochester, New York as a technical writer and geophysical engineer. He has worked in Sumatra with an oil exploration crew.

Since 1997, Saunders has been on the faculty of Syracuse where he teaches creative writing.

External link

• Syracuse University webpage
• George Saunder's fan website
• Saunders reads a story on This American Life
• Articles by George Saunders