Writing alum Karen Russell '06 has announced the release of her latest novel The Antidote, forthcoming from Knopf in Spring 2025. The book marks Russell's first novel since her bestselling debut Swamplandia!
Set in the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska, The Antidote opens during Black Sunday's historic dust storm. The novel follows five interconnected characters: a "prairie witch" who stores people's memories and secrets in her body, a Polish wheat farmer grappling with a blessing turned curse, his orphaned niece who is both a basketball star and witch's apprentice, a voluble scarecrow, and a New Deal photographer whose camera has the power to travel through time.
The novel tackles themes of national memory and settler amnesia while drawing parallels to contemporary climate concerns. Through its dust bowl setting, it seeks to examine the violent histories and willful omissions passed down through generations.
Early praise describes the novel as "achingly gorgeous" and "as profound as it is wonderfully strange," in the words of writer Lauren Groff. Tommy Orange, meanwhile, praises Russell's exploration of "this country's still relatively untold origin story."
Russell, a MacArthur Fellow and Guggenheim Fellow, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and has received numerous accolades including two National Magazine Awards for Fiction, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the 2024 Mary McCarthy Award. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, and The New York Times, among other publications.
Russell is also collaborating on an original opera premiering in 2025 with Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek, following their adaptation of her short story "Proving Up."
