Elizabeth Benedict

Her first published short story, "Feasting," was selected for the 1983 O. Henry Prize Short Story collection.[8] Her second story, "A Fifty Percent Chance," published in Seventeen magazine in 1982, earned a National Magazine Award.[9] Her first novel, Slow Dancing (Alfred A. Knopf), was a finalist for the 1985 National Book Award[10] and the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize.[11] Her novel Almost, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, was selected as one of Newsweek's Best Fiction of 2001.

Benedict's Joy of Writing Sex: A Guide for Fiction Writers (Story Press) was first published in 1996. A second edition, published in 2002, was updated to include the new role of the Internet and the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal in writing about sex in fiction The book was also published in the U.K., Germany and Australia[12][13][14][15]

Benedict teaches workshops on writing about sex in fiction at writers' conferences and has appeared on radio shows discussing the issue in the U.S., UK, and Australia.[16][17][18]

The Joy of Writing Sex led The New York Observer to include Benedict on its panel on the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, described in Francine Prose's article, "New York Supergals Love That Naughty Prez" Benedict defended then-President Clinton's conduct, saying "Nobody is aggrieved here. Monica's not complaining, Hillary's not complaining. The only person who cares is Ken Starr."[19][20][21] Benedict reaffirmed her defense of Clinton in a retrospective of the scandal on the Slate podcast "Slow Burn," in 2018.[22]

Benedict's first memoir, Rewriting Illness: A View of My Own" is scheduled to be published in May 2023.

Benedict's book reviews, personal essays, and articles have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Salmagundi, Tin House, Daedalus, Harper's Bazaar, Esquire, Real Simple, Allure, The American Prospect, and The Rumpus. Her short fiction has appeared in Narrative Magazine.[23]

Elizabeth Benedict speaking at Islanders Write in Martha's Vineyard, July 2022

Benedict is the editor of three anthologies. The first, Mentors, Muses and Monsters: 30 Writers on the People who Changed Their Lives (2009, Free Press, Simon & Schuster), was inspired by an essay she wrote for Tin House about her mentor at Barnard, Elizabeth Hardwick.[24] It includes essays by other Barnard alumnae Mary Gordon and Sigrid Nunez. Nunez's essay on Susan Sontag was the inspiration for her 2011 memoir about Sontag, Sempre Susan.[25]

Her second anthology, What My Mother Gave Me: Thirty-one Women on the Gifts that Mattered Most (2013 Algonquin Books), was a New York Times Bestseller.[26] Her third, Me, My Hair and I: Twenty-seven Women Untangle an Obsession (2015, Algonquin Books) includes essays by Maria Hinojosa, Marita Golden, and Jane Smiley.