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Karl Iagnemma

Karl Iagnemma was raised in suburban Detroit and attended the University of Michigan, where he studied mechanical engineering and began writing fiction. He did graduate work in robotics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and wrote much of his first book, On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction, as a Ph.D. student. His short stories have received numerous awards, including the Paris Review Plimpton Prize, first place in the Playboy college fiction contest, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Massachusetts Cultural Council. His writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Zoetrope, SEED, and NASA's ASK magazine, and been anthologized in the Best American Short Stories, Best American Erotica, and Pushcart Prize collections.

Karl currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and works as a research scientist at M.I.T. He's currently completing a novel about a phrenologist and a politician in 1850's Detroit.


“I made a quick calculation: a 180-pound man, falling thirty feet under an acceleration of 32.2 feet per second square—I drew the shade and turned away from the window and closed my eyes.”
Karl Iagnemma
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“This is an indisputable fact: there are many, many people around here who love things that will never love them back.”
Karl Iagnemma
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