Meg Wolitzer

Last updated
Meg Wolitzer
Meg wolitzer 2011.jpg
Wolitzer at the 2011 Texas Book Festival, Austin
Born (1959-05-28) May 28, 1959 (age 65)
New York City, U.S.
OccupationWriter
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Smith College
Brown University
Period1982–present
Genre Literary fiction
Notable worksThe Ten-Year Nap, The Uncoupling, The Interestings
Spouse Richard Panek
Signature
Meg Wolitzer signature (cropped).jpg
Website
megwolitzer.com

Meg Wolitzer (born May 28, 1959) is an American novelist, known for The Wife , The Ten-Year Nap, The Uncoupling,The Interestings, and The Female Persuasion. She works as an instructor in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.

Contents

Life and career

Wolitzer was born in Brooklyn and raised in Syosset, New York, the daughter of novelist Hilma Wolitzer (née Liebman) and psychologist Morton Wolitzer. [1] [2] She was raised Jewish. [3] Wolitzer studied creative writing at Smith College and graduated from Brown University in 1981. She wrote her first novel, Sleepwalking, a story of three college girls obsessed with poetry and death, while still an undergraduate; it was published in 1982. [4] Her following books include Hidden Pictures (1986), This Is Your Life (1988), Surrender, Dorothy (1998), The Wife (2003), The Position (2005), The Ten-Year Nap (2008), The Uncoupling (2011), and The Interestings (2013). Her short story "Tea at the House" was featured in 1998's Best American Short Stories collection. Her novel for younger readers, The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman, was published in 2011.

She also co-authored, with Jesse Green, a book of cryptic crosswords, Nutcrackers: Devilishly Addictive Mind Twisters for the Insatiably Verbivorous (1991), and has written about the relative difficulty women writers face in gaining critical acclaim. [5]

She has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, Skidmore College, and, most recently, was a guest artist at Princeton University. Over the past decade she has also taught at both Stony Brook Southampton's MFA in Creative Writing program and the Southampton Writers Conference and the Florence Writers Workshop. [6] Three films have been based on her work: This Is My Life , scripted and directed by Nora Ephron; the 2006 made-for-television movie Surrender, Dorothy ; and the 2017 drama The Wife , starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce.

The Uncoupling was the subject of the first coast-to-coast virtual book club discussion, via Skype. [7]

As of 2018, Wolitzer resides in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, with her husband, science writer Richard Panek. [1]

Works

Novels


Children’s Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yusef Komunyakaa</span> American poet (born 1941)

Yusef Komunyakaa is an American poet who teaches at New York University and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Komunyakaa is a recipient of the 1994 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, for Neon Vernacular and the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He also received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Komunyakaa received the 2007 Louisiana Writer Award for his contribution to poetry.

Kaylie Jones is an American writer, memoirist and novelist.

The Position: A Novel is a 2005 novel by American writer Meg Wolitzer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Hempel</span> American journalist

Amy Hempel is an American short story writer and journalist. She teaches creative writing at the Michener Center for Writers.

Ursula Hegi is a German-born American writer. She is currently an instructor in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.

Susan Minot is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, screenwriter and painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melissa Bank</span> American author (1961–2022)

Melissa Susan Bank was an American author. She published two books—The Wonder Spot, a volume of short stories, and The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing—and won the 1993 Nelson Algren Award for short fiction. She taught at Stony Brook University.

Lynnie Greene is an actress, writer, director and producer in the television industry. In addition to her work as a producer, she is possibly best known as an actress for appearing as Young Dorothy in The Golden Girls.

Karen E. Bender is an American novelist and short story writer.

Rachel Zucker is an American poet born in New York City in 1971. She is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently, SoundMachine. She also co-edited the book Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections with fellow poet, Arielle Greenberg.

Rita Ciresi is an American short story writer and novelist. She is the author of three award-winning novels that address the Italian-American experience.

Holly Goldberg Sloan is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and New York Times bestselling novelist.

Paul Harding is an American musician and author, best known for his debut novel Tinkers (2009), which won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2010 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, among other honors. He is currently the director of the Creative Writing and Literature MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton, as well as Interim Associate Provost of Stony Brook University's Lichtenstein Center.

Lou Ann Walker is an author and a professor in the MFA in Creative Writing and Literature Program at Stony Brook Southampton, as well as a founding Editor of The Southampton Review. Her memoir A Loss for Words received a Christopher Award for high standards in Communication.

Star Black is a poet, photographer, and artist. She has authored seven collections of poetry and taught in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton and at The New School.

Susan Scarf Merrell is an American author who has published novels, short stories, and essays. Her second novel, Shirley, about a young woman who goes to live with novelist Shirley Jackson and Stanley Edgar Hyman in their Bennington home in 1964, was published June 12, 2014 by Blue Rider/Penguin Books.

Jen Currin is an American/Canadian poet and fiction writer. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, she is currently based in Vancouver, British Columbia and teaches creative writing at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Her 2010 collection The Inquisition Yours won the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry in 2011, and was shortlisted for that year's Lambda Literary Award, Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and ReLit Award. Her 2014 collection School was a finalist for the Pat Lowther Award, the Dorothy Livesay Prize, and a ReLit Award.

Joanna Ruocco is a prize-winning American author and co-editor of the fiction journal Birkensnake. In 2013, she received the Pushcart Prize for her story "If the Man Took" and is also winner of the Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize. Ruocco received her MFA at Brown, and a Ph.D. in creative writing from the University of Denver. Her most recent novel is Dan, published by Dorothy, a publishing project. She also serves as assistant professor in creative writing at Wake Forest University.

<i>Unsheltered</i> (novel) 2018 novel by Barbara Kingsolver

Unsheltered is a 2018 novel by Barbara Kingsolver published by HarperCollins. It follows two families living in the same house at two separate time periods in Vineland, New Jersey. The novel alternates between the 21st century and the 19th century, using the last words of one chapter as the title of the next one. One family lived in the house in the 1800s and the other family resides in the house in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

<i>The Wife</i> (novel) 2003 novel by Meg Wolitzer

The Wife is a 2003 novel by American writer Meg Wolitzer. The book was adapted into a film released in 2017, directed by Björn L. Runge, written by Jane Anderson, and starring Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, and Christian Slater.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lyall, Sarah (2018-03-23). "Why Now May (Finally) Be Meg Wolitzer's Moment". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  2. "Wolitzer, Hilma 1930-". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  3. "Q&A: Meg Wolitzer on Sex, Suburbs — and the Workmen's Circle". The Jewish Daily Forward. April 28, 2011. Archived from the original on 7 June 2012.
  4. "Writing About Women Who Are Soccer Moms Without Soccer". New York Times. March 25, 2008. Retrieved September 4, 2011.
  5. Meg Wolitzer (March 30, 2012). "The Second Shelf". The New York Times. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  6. "Faculty & Staff | Southampton Arts".
  7. "New chapter begins for book clubs as author takes discussion online". Edmonton Journal. September 4, 2011. Retrieved September 4, 2011.
  8. Doll, Jen (May 9, 2013). "The Author Eveyrone's Interested In: Meg Wolitzer and 'The Interestings'". The Atlantic.
  9. Gentry, Amy. "Review: 'The Female Persuasion' by Meg Wolitzer". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  10. "Meg Wolitzer's New Novel is Right for the #MeToo Moment". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2018-03-26.