I write fiction and creative nonfiction.

I’m a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin; I’ve completed my M.A. in fiction writing and am now ABD as a Ph.D. student in eighteenth-century British literature. In summer 2010, I taught an intermediate fiction workshop at UT. For the 2010-2011 academic year, I’ll be supported by an AAUW American Dissertation Fellowship and a PEO Scholar Award while I finish my dissertation and work on my next novel. Previously, I worked for two years as a public services intern at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center and taught an introductory English class for majors in fall 2009. (Learn more about my CV or teaching.)

My novel Alcestis, a retelling of the Greek myth, was published by Soho Press in February 2010.

My short-short “Things That Make One’s Heart Beat Faster” is available in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 19.

I grew up in Lancaster, PA, in a modern house in the woods. I went to Smith College and graduated as a major in classical studies, though “generalist” or “dilettante” would’ve been more appropriate. I studied abroad at Trinity College in Dublin for a year. I’ve also lived in Washington, D.C., and Ashland, Oregon, for short periods. Then I came to Austin to write and stayed for the fish tacos and literary criticism.

Some of my favorite books (and plays — poetry in another list later, maybe) are:

The Life of Johnson, A Room of One’s Own, Riddley Walker, The Gate to Women’s Country, His Dark Materials, Possession, Fingersmith, The Picture of Dorian Grey, Middlemarch, Pride & Prejudice, Persuasion, Clarissa, The Left Hand of Darkness, Portrait of a Lady, China Mountain Zhang, Orlando, The Bacchae, Tam Lin, The Waves, Evelina, Alias Grace, Truth & Beauty, Moll Flanders, Villette, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Good Omens, The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry IV, Cotillion, Doomsday Book, Gaudy Night — I have to stop somewhere.

You can contact me at: katharinebeutner at gmail dot com. My agent is Diana Fox.