🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About Ben Lerner
He grew up in Topeka, Kansas, a place that figures prominently in all of his books of poetry, and he is a 1997 graduate of Topeka High School. While he attended high school, he was a standout in forensics and debate and won the 1997 National Forensic League National Tournament in International Extemporaneous Speaking. While he was at Brown University, he studied with C.D. Wright, a poet, and got an MFA in poetry and a B.A. in political theory. Ben didn’t set out to become a fiction writer and never thought he would write novels. his poems are quite different. When he began writing novels, in some important yet tangential ways, all of the fiction became about parents. While he was writing the concussion stuff in one of his novels, he found it tough for him to write.
All Book Series by Ben Lerner
Generation XL
Series opener · book 1 of 2 · published 2007 Co-authored · Joseph Mercola
Granta 139: Best of Young American Novelists 3
Single-title series · published 2017
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Ben Lerner?
He grew up in Topeka, Kansas, a place that figures prominently in all of his books of poetry, and he is a 1997 graduate of Topeka High School. While he attended high school, he was a standout in forensics and debate and won the 1997 National Forensic League National Tournament in International Extemporaneous Speaking. While he was at Brown University, he studied with C.D.
Which Ben Lerner series should I start with?
Ben Lerner's books stand alone rather than forming a numbered series, so there is no reading order to follow. The natural first pick is Leaving the Atocha Station (2011).
How many books has Ben Lerner written?
Ben Lerner has 11 books catalogued in this guide, published between 2004 and 2026. They are filed under 4 categories rather than in numbered series — chiefly Standalone Novels, Short Story Collections and Non-Fiction.
In what order should Ben Lerner's series be read?
No reading order is needed: none of the 11 books catalogued here do not form a numbered series, so any title can be picked up first. Within each category they are listed by publication year.
How are Ben Lerner's books organised into series?
This guide splits Ben Lerner's 11 books into categories rather than numbered series: Standalone Novels (4 books); Short Story Collections (4 books); Non-Fiction (2 books); Anthologies (1 book).