Alina Grabowski Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Alina Grabowski is a literary fiction novelist who is best known for her debut novel “Women and Children First,” which she published in 2024.

The author went to the University of Pennsylvania where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English. She would then go to Vanderbilt University where she got her Masters in Fine Art degree, majoring in creative writing and fiction.
While at Vanderbilt, she used to work for Nashville Review where she was a fiction editor. For a while, the author led writing workshops and also taught creative fiction.

While she is from coastal Massachusetts, Grabowski currently makes her home in Austin, Texas, from where she pens most of her fiction works.

In addition to her novels, Alina Grabowski’s work has been featured in many prestigious magazines.

Her stories have been in the likes of Day One, Masters Review, Cleaver Magazine, Joyland, Peregrin Magazine, and Fifth Wednesday Journal among many others.

She has received scholarships from the Juniper Summer Writing Institute, the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference.

Grabowski was a 2018-19 Fellow at Vanderbilt University’s English Department and an Aspen Summer Words Emerging Writer in 2019.

As for her short fiction works, Grin City Collective awarded her an Emerging Artist Residency, which she used to work on her collection of short stories in 2015.

“Confirmation” her short story was the winner of the Master’s Review Summer Short Story Award. Grabowski was also an honorable mention for the Adroit Prize for Prose in 2012 for The Great American Road Trip.

As for why she writes, Alina Grabowski has said that she does it since it makes it easier to organize her thoughts. Sometimes, she does it just so that she can see if she can surprise herself with a great story.
In her work, Alina is often drawn to the exploration of how women navigate the world around them particularly platonic relationships.

She usually sheds light on the darker aspects and the intimate moments in the life of being a woman which make for some very thrilling reads.

Grabowski writes that she believes that the unique and special interactions between women ought to be explored and documented. As such, she usually dives deep into the topics that hold personal significance or themes that she finds herself interested in.
Moreover, by writing, she can spend time reflecting on themes and things that she finds really matter to her. In fact, the title of her debut novel “Women and Children First” found its inspiration from the evacuation course of action that was on the Titanic.

Like many novelists, Alina Grabowski had an arduous and long path toward becoming a published author. It was when she had just graduated from grad school in 2019 that she signed with her agent with whom she has been working ever since.
“Women and Children First” was her thesis for grad school and it happened to be a collection of short stories. However, most of the agents that she submitted her manuscript either told her to make it more tightly knit or to separate everything into the traditional short story collection.

Her agent believed that it would be better if she disconnected the stories and hence they worked together to make it into a novel.

During this time, she was working a very stressful technology job but she took the time to revise and edit her novels for about two years and then submitted it to editors.

The first round was particularly hard as no one was interested in the manuscript that she had been working on for more than half a decade, which was heartwrenching, even though her agent remained hopeful.
But after getting feedback from so many editors, she finally started submitting again and finally got the manuscript accepted by Zando.

Alina Grabowski’s novel “Women and Children First” is a work set in the fictional seaside town of Nashquitten, Massachusetts. It is an old coastal enclave that is full of locals as there are hardly any tourists who are even interested in it.
When a young woman collapses and dies while attending a house party, the close-knit community is shaken by the circumstances surrounding her death.

As a best friend grieves her confidante, a teacher her student, and a mother her daughter, the events around the happenings become a lightning rod, even as secrets are buried deeper and blame is cast.
While others turn their backs on the tragedy, many others are left picking the pieces, even as the dreadful truth of that fateful night begins to emerge.

This is a story that is told from the perspective of ten local women as it reminds us of the interconnectedness of life and paints an insightful portrait of grief.

The novel is also a stunning portrayal of loss and love among many other things that make for a thrilling read.

The fascinating literary puzzle is effective in how it unwinds the private lives of the several leading women as they deal with tragedy in a small town in rural Massachusetts.

“Great Things” by Alina Grabowski is a short story that the author initially published in the weekly literary journal “Day One.” As doomsday predictions of the planet start coming true, humans scramble to find a good solution.
The nearly eighteen-year-old Calla is known as one of the most promising and intelligent students of her generation.

But when she takes a position with an organization that works to save the planet or find a reasonable replacement, her older sister finds herself between apprehension and pride.
Unable to make sense of Calla’s ambition, she starts encouraging her sister even though deep down, she is certain that she may never set eyes on her again.

As they spend their last days together, they are in pain at having to say their goodbyes before they go their separate ways and find their destinies.

The short story is an unflinching exploration of adolescence, sisterhood, and what it means to lay it all down for those you love.