D'Erasmo was born in 1961 in
New York City. She received a B.A. from
Barnard College and an M.A. from
New York University in English and American literature. From 1988 to 1995, she was a senior editor at
The Village Voice Literary Supplement. She was a
Stegner Fellow in fiction at
Stanford University from 1995 to 1997. She created and developed the fiction review section of
Bookforum from 1997 to 1998. She received a
Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction in 2009. She was the 2010–11 Sovern/Columbia Affiliated Fellow at the
American Academy in Rome. D'Erasmo is the author of four novels and one book of nonfiction. Her first novel,
Tea, was selected as a
New York Times Notable Book for 2000. Her second novel,
A Seahorse Year (2004), was named a
San Francisco Chronicle best seller and won both a
Lambda Literary Award and a
Ferro-Grumley Award. Her third novel was
The Sky Below (2009). Her fourth novel,
Wonderland, was named
NPR's Best Book of 2014; a
Time Top Ten Fiction Book of 2014; a
New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice; and a
BBC Top Ten Book of 2014. She has been a faculty member at the
Bread Loaf Writers Conference. She is currently an associate professor of writing at
Fordham University. ==Awards==