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Carol Louise Edgarian is an American writer, editor, and publisher. A New York Times-bestselling author, her novels include Rise the Euphrates, Three Stages of Amazement, and Vera. She is a leading force in bringing diverse voices to the fore as co-founder and editor of the non-profit Narrative Magazine, a leading digital publisher of fiction, poetry, non-fiction and art, and as founder of Narrative in the Schools, whose programs provide free learning and teaching resources for students and educators in under-served communities in twenty-eight countries.

Early life

Born in New Britain, Connecticut to first-generation parents, Edgarian grew up in the Hartford area. She attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where she graduated cum laude, receiving the Kingsbury Prize and the Pamela Weidenman Prize in Art. She received her B.A. in English with High Honors from Stanford University.

She moved to San Francisco soon after college and, while writing her first novel, Rise the Euphrates, worked as a freelance speechwriter for high tech and retail companies, including Levi Strauss and the Mayfield Fund.

Literary work

Edgarian entered the national literary scene with a high-profile debut novel Rise the Euphrates (1994). In its review, The Washington Post cited Rise the Euphrates as “a book whose generosity of spirit, intelligence, humanity, and finally ambition are what literature ought to be and rarely is today—daring, heartbreaking, and affirmative, giving order and sense to our random lives.” The Miami Herald called the novel “a stunning debut” and Mademoiselle magazine called Edgarian’s writing “so good it can raise the hairs on your neck.” A twentieth-anniversary revised edition of the novel was released in 2015 to mark the centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

Edgarian's second novel, Three Stages of Amazement (2011) is both a love story and social chronicle of turbulent America set in San Francisco 2009 at the start of the financial crisis. The novel reached The New York Times Best Seller List in its first week of publication, O Magazine chose it as a Top Pick, and Indiebound selected it as a Pick of the Month. Three Stages of Amazement was called “furiously compelling” by Janet Maslin at The New York Times,[1] “superbly crafted, skillfully plotted” by The Washington Post,[2] and “generous and graceful and true” by O Magazine.[3]

Edgarian’s third novel Vera (2021) was an immediate national bestseller. An O Magazine Most Anticipated Read, and an Indiebound Pick of the Month, a Booklist Starred Review cited the novel as “Brilliantly conceived and beautifully realized,” and the Los Angeles Review of Books described Vera as, “If there’s a book that speaks urgently to a time of grief, resilience, wounding loneliness, and collective hope in one of the deadliest pandemics in history, it is Vera — a work to be cherished for what it uncovers in the pages and, possibly, the heart of the reader.” Set in San Francisco in 1906, Vera tells the story of a fifteen-year-old girl, the daughter of the town’s leading madam, coming of age in the aftermath of the city’s devastating earthquake and fire and centers on themes of displacement, societal upheaval, and reinvention with a cinematic cast of well known as well as fictional characters.

Vera is also written about in Literary Hub’s “Carol Edgarian and Ann Beattie Talk Complex Characters and Literary Inspirations”; Good Housekeeping’s “25 Best Historical Fiction Books to Take You Back in Time”; Good Morning America’s “25 must-read books for March”; San Francisco Chronicle’s “With ‘Vera,’ Carol Edgarian transports readers to a darker age of San Francisco”; Medium’s “Finding Hope in the Pages of a Book”; Alta Journal’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still”; Buzzfeed’s “19 New Historical Fiction Books We Think You're Going To Love”; National Book Review’s “5 Hot Books”; New York Journal of Books’s “Vera: A Novel”; Washington Post’s “‘Vera’ bears witness to the lives ruined by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake”; Reader’s Choice’s “Your 6 Favorite Historical Novels and What to Read Next.”

Among Edgarian's other works of fiction and non-fiction is The Writer’s Life: Intimate Thoughts on Work, Love, Inspiration, and Fame which she co-edited with Tom Jenks (Vintage).

Narrative and Narrative in the Schools

In 2003, following the publication of her first novel, Edgarian co-founded the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Narrative Magazine with former Esquire, Gentlemen’s Quarterly, and Scribner editor Tom Jenks as an opportunity to celebrate new and known writers, and to encourage reading and writing in the digital age.

Narrative publishes stories, poems, essays, interviews, and art weekly—the work of several hundred authors a year. It offers seasonal contests and awards along with educational programming via Narrative in the Schools (more below). Subscription to the platform is free, as is access to the entirety of Narrative’s library of thousands of works of fiction, poetry, non-fiction and art.

In 2014, Edgarian launched Narrative in the Schools to support under-resourced teachers and students by providing Narrative’s free library of literature and other educational tools, easily accessed for today’s hybrid classrooms. Today, Narrative in the Schools is used in classrooms in more than 28 countries and 48 states in the U.S. The program offers writing video tutorials by Narrative authors, curated reading lists, and more.

The Narrative High School Writing Contest was established in 2015 to encourage high school students to engage with writing beyond the classroom. Annual winners are awarded monetary prizes and are mentored by the founders and editors of Narrative, along with Narrative author guest judges, and ultimately earn publication in Narrative alongside the platforms established writers. Originally an essay contest, the competition has expanded to include fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Personal life

Edgarian has three adult daughters and is married to Tom Jenks. She lives in Northern California.

Awards

• 1994 ANC Freedom Award
• Bay Area Book Reviewers Best Fiction Prize (nominated)
• Best Debut of the Year (Chicago Tribune)

Books

• Rise the Euphrates (1994)
• The Writer’s Life: Intimate Thoughts on Work, Love, Inspiration, and Fame (1997)
• Three Stages of Amazement (2011)
• Vera (2021)

Selected essays and interviews

• Literary Hub’s “Carol Edgarian and Ann Beattie Talk Complex Characters and Literary Inspirations”
• PEN America's "PEN Ten with Carol Edgarian"
• Narrative 10 Interview: Narrative Founders Carol Edgarian and Tom Jenks Reflect on 15 Years of Publishing. Narrative.
• Letters to a Young Writer: Some advice on the writing life. Narrative.
• On Genocide and Remembering: An introduction to and an excerpt from Rise the Euphrates, marking the centennial of the Armenian Genocide. Narrative.
• No Safe Place—Reflections on the Newtown Shooting: A reflection on the aftermath of the Newtown, Connecticut, shootings. Recorded for WNYC and aired on NPR’s All Things Considered.
• Acquired Taste—On Style: On the origins of personal style. W Magazine.
• Savages: Growing up with an unruly gang of siblings and learning the meaning of love and war. Best American Notable Essay (2013). W Magazine.
• Brokedown Palace: On an eighteen-year-old love affair with a house. W Magazine.
• Sister Rue: On sisterhood, published in the anthology Forever Sisters (Pocket Books), edited by Claudia O’Keefe.
• The Soul of San Francisco: An ode to San Francisco, Travel & Leisure.

References

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