Birthright (Novel) set for publication by Penguin Random House
Birthright explores through a realist—and hopefully revolutionary—lens on the violent world of Arthuriana. The work focuses on the complex sibling dynamic between Morgan le Fay and King Arthur.
“My hope is this work will not only revitalize but also challenge and change the way we read Arthurian legend and literature. The novel tackles nation-building and what it means to create a nation.”
Katherine J. Chen is the author of Joan: A Novel of Joan of Arc (Random House US / Hodder & Stoughton UK), which won the 2023 American Library in Paris Book Award and has been translated into nine languages, and Mary B (Random House US). Her essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, the Times Literary Supplement, The Telegraph, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Minnesota Star Tribune, Electric Literature, Literary Hub, and other publications, with forthcoming work elsewhere. She is a graduate of Princeton University and Boston University’s MFA program in Fiction and is pursuing her doctoral degree in English at Brown University, where she is studying Henry James. Her next book, which is under contract with Random House, will explore through a realist lens the complex and violent world of Arthurian legend, focusing on the sibling dynamic between Morgan le Fay and King Arthur.