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R.L. Maizes

Goodreads Author

Website

https://rlmaizes.com/

Twitter

RL_Maizes

Genre

Fiction

Member Since

August 2012

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R.L. Maizes is the author of the recently released novel A COMPLETE FICTION, the novel OTHER PEOPLE'S PETS, winner of the 2021 Colorado Book Award in Fiction, and the short story collection WE LOVE ANDERSON COOPER. Her stories have aired on National Public Radio and have appeared in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading. Maizes's essays have aired on NPR and have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, O Magazine, McSweeney's and elsewhere.

Born and raised in Queens, New York, Maizes currently lives in Boulder County, CO, with her husband, Steve, and her muses: Arie, a cat who was dropped in the animal shelter’s night box like an overdue library book, and Rosie, a dog who spent her first year homeless in South Dakota a ...more

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Average rating: 3.7 · 2,474 ratings · 616 reviews · 5 distinct works • Similar authors

	Other People's Pets 3.57 avg rating — 1,165 ratings — published 2020 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	We Love Anderson Cooper 3.75 avg rating — 1,092 ratings — published 2019 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Complete Fiction 4.09 avg rating — 199 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Cat Called Grievous 4.39 avg rating — 18 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tattoo 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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R.L. Maizes's Blog

Starred Review from Shelf Awareness

"Strike up the band: there's a new R.L. Maizes (We Love Anderson Cooper; Other People's Pets) book, and it's breakout-novel time--or at least it should be. As a funny-pitiless look at the lengths writers will go to get published, A Complete Fiction deserves shelf space alongside Percival Everett's Erasure and Jean Hanff Korelitz's The Plot." Shelf Awareness gives A Complete Fiction a starred revie Read more of this blog post »

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Published on November 30, 2025 05:36 • Tags: literary-fiction-humor-satire

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R.L. is Currently Reading

R.L. Maizes is currently reading

Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance

by Alison Espach

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Jul 08, 2026 04:11PM

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Native Son

by Richard Wright

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Jul 07, 2026 07:21AM

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The Author Weekend

by Laura Zigman (Goodreads Author)

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Jul 03, 2026 04:09AM

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R.L.’s Quotes

“Fiction is a kind of compassion-generating machine that saves us from sloth. Is life kind or cruel? Yes, Literature answers. Are people good or bad? You bet, says Literature. But unlike other systems of knowing, Literature declines to eradicate one truth in favor of another; rather, it teaches us to abide with the fact that, in their own way, all things are true, and helps us, in the face of this terrifying knowledge, continually push ourselves in the direction of Open the Hell Up.”
― George Saunders

117 likes

“A short story is the ultimate close-up magic trick -- a couple of thousand words to take you around the universe or break your heart.”
― Neil Gaiman

tags: power-of-words

79 likes

“A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film.”
― Lorrie Moore

tags: novels, short-stories, writing

1938 likes

“The main effort of arranging your life should be to progressively reduce the amount of time required to decently maintain yourself so that you can have all the time you want for reading.”
― Norman Rush

71 likes

“Humor is what happens when we're told the truth quicker and more directly than we're used to.”
― George Saunders, The Braindead Megaphone

R.L.’s Year In Books

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R.L. Maizes

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R.L. Maizes's Blog

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