Annabel Monaghan
New York Times-bestselling romance and contemporary fiction author
Chloe Benjamin
New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists
Photo credit: David Enloe
Chloe Benjamin is the author of The Immortalists, a New York Times bestseller, and The Anatomy of Dreams. Her third novel, Under Story, will be published in September 2026. A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, LibraryReads favorite, and #1 Indie Next pick, The Immortalists was named a best book of 2018 by NPR, The Washington Post, and more. The Anatomy of Dreams also received the Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award. A vibrant speaker, Benjamin offers thoughtful insights into the creative process, the publishing journey, and the themes that shape her work, including uncertainty, resilience, belief, and imagination.
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About Chloe Benjamin
Chloe Benjamin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists, the critically acclaimed novel that was named a Best Book of 2018, as well as The Anatomy of Dreams, winner of the Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award, and her forthcoming third novel, Under Story. Benjamin has earned widespread acclaim for her emotionally resonant, thought-provoking fiction, which combines high-concept premises with intimate, character-driven execution. In her work, Benjamin explores magic and mundanity, spirituality and science, knowledge and mystery, as well as the unanswerable questions of human being: What does it mean to live, knowing we will die? How do we tolerate the unknown and embrace what time we have? How can we cultivate caring, healthy relationships with ourselves and others?
A dynamic and engaging speaker, Benjamin speaks about creativity, uncertainty, self-compassion, and accountability to both each other and the natural world. Inspired by her personal experiences and the themes of her novels, she discusses the intersection of art, resilience, and well-being while sharing practical insights into fiction writing, research, and the publishing process. Her talks and conversations inspire writers, readers, and general audiences alike, encouraging curiosity, wonder, and a deeper embrace of the unknown.
Benjamin’s newest novel, Under Story, is both an intimate, epic love story and sweeping odyssey of scientific discovery. Hiding from her former life, biologist Laurel Salter washes dishes at an isolated Antarctic research base—until a mysterious light draws physicists, including her former husband, Eli, to the station. Convinced this could change everything, Laurel must persuade Eli to risk everything to fix the burden that hangs between them. A breathless page-turner and a love letter to our planet, Under Story invites us to consider the promise of this life, what might lie beyond it, and how far we would go for more time with the people we love, cementing Benjamin’s place among our best, and most lasting, storytellers.
Benjamin’s 2018 novel The Immortalists was an instant New York Times bestseller. Praised as a “captivating family saga” by the New York Times Book Review, the novel was also named a 2018 best book of the year by The Washington Post, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Marie Claire, LibraryReads, and more. Spanning five decades, the novel follows the Gold children’s choices after a traveling psychic tells them the day they will die. A deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds, The Immortalists was acclaimed by readers worldwide. Benjmain’s debut novel The Anatomy of Dreams was longlisted for the 2014 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages.
Originally from San Francisco, CA, Benjamin is a graduate of Vassar College and the M.F.A. in fiction at the University of Wisconsin. She lives with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Contact us for more information about booking Chloe Benjamin for your next event.
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Speaking Topics
Under Story
New York Times bestselling author Chloe Benjamin explores the inspiration behind her newest novel Under Story. Drawing on themes of self-compassion, accountability, and imagination, Benjamin examines what it means to care for ourselves, for one another, and for the fragile ecosystems that sustain us. She reflects on how the creative process mirrors an act of faith, requiring belief in possibilities that cannot yet be seen, and how storytelling can help us navigate an era shaped by rapid technological change and environmental uncertainty. Through the lens of Under Story, audiences are invited to consider whether redemption begins not with changing the past, but with transforming the way we live in the present—and what we owe to each other and to the Earth.
This is the Good Part: On Process and Publishing
Chloe Benjamin spent most of her life as a self-proclaimed “ambitious and perfectionistic striver,” who wanted to accomplish as much as she could at a young age. The wonderfully good fortune of a bestselling novel, combined with its unexpected personal consequences, forced her to reconsider her approach and ask: When it comes to the vibrant uncertainty of the writing process—and the recognition and exposure of publishing—which is the good part? Benjamin asks audiences, whether one is an artist or not, how can we cultivate “the good part” in times of quiet, immersive effort as well as public-facing promotion?
The Gap: Embracing Uncertainty
In this lecture, bestselling author Chloe Benjamin explores the challenges of uncertainty—and the lifelong project of releasing control to accept what is. Using the metaphor of the gap to explore the unknown, she asks: What can we find there, and how might it be different from what we expect?
Creating Sustainably: Seeking Mind-Body Health While Making Art
Bestselling author Chloe Benjamin explores her journey toward work-life balance—and the surprising ways in which such balance enlivened art post-pandemic. Like many of us, Benjamin was also forced to reconsider what is most important in her life, and how to work in a way that supports, rather than hinders, those priorities. Adapted from an essay Benjamin wrote for The Cut, as well as the subjects she discussed on CBS Mornings, Benjamin can adapt this talk for creative or non-creative audiences.
Write What You Want to Know: Research for Fiction Writing
Writers are often told to write what they know, but bestselling author Chloe Benjamin has always been drawn more to writing what she wants to know. Some of the subjects she’s written about are close to her: for instance, though she didn’t grow up as a gay man in 1970s/80s San Francisco, like her character in The Immortalists, Simon Gold, she did grow up in San Francisco with gay parents, immersed in the world of ballet. On the other hand, she researches extensively in order to write about subjects that fascinate her but with which she doesn’t have personal experience—including vaudeville, magicians, dream research, longevity, physics, mycology, and more. She employs a variety of techniques, from reading memoir, journalism, and academic articles to conducting personal interviews and undertaking what she calls experiential research: shadowing people who have her characters’ jobs, attending relevant conferences and workshops, visiting the places her characters visit, and more. She discusses this, as well as the importance of integrity, care, and respect when writing beyond one’s personal experience, with audiences of all backgrounds.
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Praise for Chloe Benjamin
Praise for Under Story
Chloe Benjamin is an astonishing writer who conjures an entire parallel universe to illuminate one family’s loss. Under Story is the most ingenious novel I’ve read in a long time, and yet its scenes depicting the ordinary joys and sorrows of parenthood, marriage, and friendship are perhaps most magical of all. If this speculative masterpiece has a flaw, it’s that at 500 pages it feels too short.
— Anthony Marra, New York Times bestselling author of A Constellation of Vital PhenomenaA rapturously beautiful novel. I was in awe of Chloe Benjamin’s universe-straddling imagination, her profound writing on love and grief, and her telescopic vision that lets her zoom into the smallest chambers of the human heart and far out again into the laws of theoretical physics. I loved Under Story.
— Kaliane Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of The Ministry of TimeA head-spinning novel, daringly imaginative. Even as she plays with physics and fantasy, Chloe Benjamin has much to say about the nature of friendship, family, mortality and love.
— Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of MarchAn absolute feat of storytelling, and a once in a lifetime novel. Under Story will stay with you long after you read the final, dazzling page.
— Rebecca Serle, New York Times bestselling author of In Five YearsUnder Story is phenomenal, and one of the best books I’ve read in years. Wondrous, wildly ambitious, an epic love story that I’m so grateful exists in the world.
— Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello BeautifulA fiendishly clever, utterly original novel that gets to the heart of what it means to be alive. Under Story is dazzling: it will change you.
— Emilia Hart, New York Times bestselling author of WeywardUnder Story is a spectacular novel. It is utterly transporting, with an imaginative scope that feels both breathtaking and profound. I was blown away by it.
— Clare Leslie Hall, New York Times bestselling author of Broken CountryA mind-bending, head-popping sci-fi love story full of intrigue and tenderness.
— Claire Fuller, author of Swimming LessonsAt once intimate and sweeping, Chloe Benjamin’s new novel looks at the magic of science and the power of love, examines life’s spark from the smallest atoms to the furthest cosmos, and braids together two worlds with astonishing imagination. Beautifully crafted and tenderly felt, Under Story is a feat—for readers in search of a gripping exploration of the strange mystery of life, loss, and time.
— Aja Gabel, author of The LightbreakersPart science epic and part sweeping love story, Chloe Benjamin’s latest novel is an ode to the natural world and humanity’s place within it… Under Story grapples with the unknown, ultimately delivering a powerful message on the precarious and precious nature of the universe and human life itself.
— Harper’s BazaarCount on Benjamin to ask the big questions—what makes a life worth living? What is the nature of time? Where do we belong?—and entertain us fully all the while. Cannot wait to read.
— Lit HubBenjamin’s imaginative rendering of the antiuniverse offers truly unique ways of thinking about time, nature, progress, duty, and aging….Blending literary fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and scientific research, Benjamin has created a genre-bending novel that is deeply concerned with the tenuous, mysterious, and enduring symbiotic relationship between humans and nature. Ambitious, poignant, and deeply human.
— KirkusBenjamin’s immersive and atmospheric novel is a heartfelt and intellectually gripping missive to the planet, to loss, and to connection. Fans of Benjamin’s The Immortalists will be thrilled as she again delivers on all levels. Equally appropriate for fans of mycelium, odes to the magic of the Earth, and speculation on the myriad possibilities for humanity.
— Library Journal (Starred Review)Lives converge, and so do timelines, at a remote Antarctic base in this sweeping novel about family, loss, love and time from the author of The Immortalists.
— Today.comUltimately this capacious, suspenseful, and deeply moving novel of scientific and emotional quests offers provocative perspectives on obsession, parenting, time, forgiveness, and love.
— BooklistPraise for The Immortalists
A literary page-turner…A really compelling plotline.
— The Wall Street JournalThe only real magic here is Benjamin’s storytelling….Poignant…A testimony of love.
— The Washington Post[An] amazing work of fiction…A dense, yet beautifully spun and satisfying tale that spans 50 years…Spare, yet gorgeously robust prose…and every page is imbued with [Benjamin’s] obvious storytelling skill….Begin 2018 with the book that could easily retain the year’s top spot, The Immortalists is a can’t-put-down, makes-you-think tale of a not-so-average American family.
— Associated PressThe book spans decades, touching on the AIDs crisis, 9/11, race, and marriage. But, at its core, it’s an examination of free will and fate.
— The New YorkerThe reader will likely be thoroughly taken by the world of the Gold siblings, in all its shades of brilliant color. It’s not a totally comfortable realm, since we know all too well how this tale’s going to end, but getting there is lovely.
— NPR.orgCentered on four siblings and spanning decades, The Immortalists asks a seemingly simple yet unimaginably complex question: If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life? The search for the answer makes for a sprawling, enchanting family saga.
— Entertainment Weekly (Must-List)A family saga about love, destiny, living life and making choices that will cause readers to consider what to do with the time given them on this earth.
— Huffington Post[A] captivating family saga…Each of these four narrative strands is a mini marvel, but together they form a hauntingly beautiful tapestry of familial love and loss.
— Lit HubA page turner, as addictive as it is emotionally searing…Captivating, moving and addictive. It makes you think, feel, fall in love, and question how to best live your days left on earth.
— Lambda LiteraryChloe Benjamin’s The Immortalists is the very best kind of literary thriller, its suspense deriving from characters we care about deeply and surprises that feel embedded in our shared humanity. As profound a meditation on destiny as readers are likely to encounter.
— Richard RussoFor someone who loves stories about brothers and sisters, as I do, The Immortalists is about as good as it gets. A memorable and heartfelt look at what might happen to a family who knows too much. It’s amazing how good this book is.
— Karen Joy FowlerA beautiful, compassionate, and even joyful novel. Chloe Benjamin has written an inspiring book that makes you think hard about what you want to do with the time you’re given. This is not really a book about dying—it’s a book about how to live.
— Nathan Hill, author of The Nix -
Books by Chloe Benjamin
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Featured Title
Under Story
September 1, 2026
One of Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026
The New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists returns with an intimate yet epic love story—and a sweeping odyssey of scientific discovery. Under Story invites us to consider the promise of this life, what might lie beyond it, and how far we would go for more time with the people we love, cementing Chloe Benjamin’s place among our best, and most lasting, storytellers.
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