Fall 2025
“Lovely and tender . . . The child of a writer has much to write about—Hester Kaplan does so with gleaming insights into her father’s rhythms.” —Sam Franzini, Jewish Book Council
“[An] affecting memoir.” —Sophia Stewart, The Millions
“[An] affecting memoir . . . Melancholy and meticulously written, this excavation of a literary lineage isn’t easy to forget.” —Publishers Weekly
“Written in a rich, evocative language . . . A daughter’s searching memoir, reflecting on the perils and promises of biography and the art of reading the self.” —Kirkus Reviews
Announcements, Reviews, and News
Biography of a Biographer: Searching for My Father on Mark Twain’s Farm
Jewish Book Council Review of Twice Born
The Millions’ Great Fall 2025 Book Preview
Publisher’s Weekly Review of Twice Born
Fall 2025 Fiction & Nonfiction Preview: Memoirs & Biographies
Commonweal – Review of Twice Born
Over the past few years, a surprising new genre has emerged: the critic’s daughter’s memoir. In 2022, there was Ada Calhoun’s Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me. The alluded-to-father there was the art critic Peter Schjeldahl, who died four months after...
On the Seawall – Twice Born Review
When Hester Kaplan was just about thirteen and her parents were away for the evening, she entered her father’s study, off limits to her even when he was there. Sitting at the desk where Justin Kaplan had composed his magnificent biography Mr. Clemens and Mark...
Twice Born – Coming Fall 2025
Award-Winning Writer
Recent awards include the Salamander Fiction Prize, the McGinnis Ritchie Award for Non-Fiction, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Recent Publications
Unravished
The Tell
Kinship Theory
Acclaim for Hester Kaplan’s Recent Publications
Unravished
The Tell
Kinship Theory
UNRAVISHED
a new collection of stories, from Ig Publishing:
Masterfully written and emotionally packed, the stories that make up Unravished, the new collection from award-winning author Hester Kaplan, seduce and startle, and remind us of the shifting ways we choose to narrate our own lives.
Praise for Unravished
Top Indie Fiction by Library Journal
“Kaplan delivers an exceptional collection with beautifully rendered stories for and about grown-ups. The second wife of a bombastic older man fends off neighbors distraught by his building plans, which could hurt the environment (and maybe the neighborhood?); a man plays father to his girlfriend’s son at the circus. For readers, not just short story fans, who like fiction focusing smartly on contemporary adult relationships.” ~ Library Journal
Interviews, Reviews, & Multimedia
Commonweal – Review of Twice Born
Over the past few years, a surprising new genre has emerged: the critic’s daughter’s memoir. In 2022, there was Ada Calhoun’s Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me. The alluded-to-father there was the art critic Peter Schjeldahl, who died four months after...
On the Seawall – Twice Born Review
When Hester Kaplan was just about thirteen and her parents were away for the evening, she entered her father’s study, off limits to her even when he was there. Sitting at the desk where Justin Kaplan had composed his magnificent biography Mr. Clemens and Mark...
THE PROVIDENCE PHOENIX: Hester Kaplan’s The Tell is captivating
In her first novel in 10 years, The Tell (Harper Perennial), Providence writer and educator Hester Kaplan tackles the familiar territory of marriage and relationships she has previously explored in the award-winning short story collection, The Edge of Marriage (1999), and her novel, Kinship Theory (2001).