Joan Frank

Joan Frank's second story collection, In Envy Country, won the Richard Sullivan Prize in Fiction, the ForeWord Reviews' Book of the Year Award, and was named a Finalist for the California Book Award;. Order it directly from the University of Notre Dame Press (order link at lower left) or from your favorite bookstore.

Her new novel, Make It Stay, will be published by The Permanent Press in late April of 2012.

In early reviews, Publishers' Weekly calls Make It Stay "a meditation on the collision between an enduring friendship and a singular marriage, both of them, in ways, life-saving." And Kirkus Reviews (in a starred review!) has proclaimed it "first class fiction."

Joan was born to New Yorkers in Phoenix, Arizona, and has lived in Hawaii, West Africa, Paris, and San Francisco. She studied with author Thaisa Frank (no relation) at the University of California in Berkeley, CA, and holds an MFA in creative fiction from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC.

Joan is a MacDowell Colony- and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellow, a Pushcart Prize- and Bread Loaf Fellow nominee, winner of the Dana Award, Michigan Literary Fiction Award, Iowa Writing Award, and Emrys Fiction Award. She has received grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, been a two-time nominee for the Northern California Book Award in Fiction, and named a San Francisco Library Literary Laureate. She has taught creative writing at San Francisco State University, and continues to teach in private consultation.

Joan also reviews literary fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle Book Review. She lives in Northern California.

Make It Stay is Joan's fifth work of fiction.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR MAKE IT STAY:

Joan Frank is a supple, graceful writer. Make It Stay ponders the mystery of personality. I couldn't put it down.
— Alice Elliott Dark, author of Think of England and In the Gloaming


A beautifully written love story—love between spouses and between friends—for those of us who know that the only story that matters is about the frightening fragility of life.
— Elizabeth Benedict, author of The Joy of Writing Sex; editor of Mentors, Muses & Monsters


Brilliant, moving, and original.
— Jeffrey Levine, author of Rumor of Cortez


A novel in triptych—the love story of Neil and Mike, the best friend who saves his life, and Neil and Rae, the woman who adores him. Gorgeously written.
— Jane Vandenburgh, author of A Pocket History of Sex in the Twentieth Century


A genuine wonder of a book—a deeply moving reflection on the nature of friendship and love, how past informs present, life’s magnificent interconnectivity. An entire world is here, as Joan Frank deftly weaves a tale that illuminates the lives of her characters, their imperfections and desires revealed in least expected moments. Recognition unfolds into something resembling transformation. A story filled with the stuff of life—nothing less than astonishing.
— Matthew Iribarne, author of Astronauts and Other Stories