Robin McLean worked as a lawyer and then a potter in the woods of Alaska before turning to writing. Her first story collection Reptile House won the BOA Editions Fiction Prize, was twice a finalist for the Flannery O'Connor Prize, and was noted as a best book of 2015 in Paris Review. 

 

Her debut novel Pity the Beast was published Nov. 2o21 by And Other Stories was noted as a best book of fiction of the year in such outlets as The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, White Review,and long-listed for the Reading the West Prize.  It was a recommended paperback in the NYTimes in Nov 2022.

 

Her second story collection, Get'em Young, Treat'em Tough, Tell'em Nothing was published by And Other Stories in Oct. 2022, was an Editors' Choice in the NYTimes, and was longlisted for the2022 Republic of Consciousness Prize.