Rebecca Makkai | |
---|---|
Born | April 20, 1978 |
Occupation | Writer |
Education | Washington and Lee University (BA) Middlebury College (MA) |
Notable works | The Great Believers (2018) |
Website | |
rebeccamakkai |
Rebecca Makkai (born April 20, 1978) is an American novelist and short-story writer, and was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. [1]
Makkai grew up in Lake Bluff, Illinois. She is the daughter of linguistics professors Valerie Becker Makkai and Ádám Makkai , a refugee to the US following the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Her paternal grandmother, Rózsa Ignácz , was a well-known actress and novelist in Hungary. [2] She earned a master's degree from Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English. [3]
Makkai's debut novel, The Borrower, was released in June 2011. [3] [4] It was a Booklist Top Ten Debut, an Indie Next pick, an O, The Oprah Magazine selection, [5] and one of Chicago's choices for best fiction of 2011. [1] It was translated into seven languages.
Her second novel, The Hundred-Year House, is set in the Northern suburbs of Chicago, and was published by Viking Press/Penguin Random House in July 2014. [1] [6] It received starred reviews in Booklist , Publishers Weekly and Library Journal . The book won the 2015 Novel of the Year award from the Chicago Writers Association and was named a best book of 2014 by BookPage.
Makkai's third novel, titled The Great Believers , is set during the AIDS epidemic in 1980s Chicago and was published by Viking/Penguin Random House in June 2018. [7] The Great Believers won the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction [8] and was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction. [9] It was also a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, [10] and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, [11] the ALA Stonewall Award, [12] and the Chicago Review of Books Award. [13]
Makkai's fourth novel, I Have Some Questions For You , was published by Viking in February 2023, and it debuted at number three on the New York Times Bestseller List.
Makkai's debut short story collection, Music for Wartime, was published by Viking in June 2015. A starred and featured review in Publishers Weekly said, "Though these stories alternate in time between WWII and the present day, they all are set, as described in the story "Exposition", within "the borders of the human heart"—a terrain that their author maps uncommonly well." [14] The Kansas City Star wrote that "if any short story writer can be considered a rock star of the genre, it's Rebecca Makkai." [15]
Her short stories have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 and as well as in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009 and 2016; she received a 2017 Pushcart Prize, a 2014 NEA fellowship, and a 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship. Makkai's fiction has also appeared in The New Yorker , [16] Ploughshares , Tin House , The Threepenny Review , New England Review , and Shenandoah . [1] [3] Her nonfiction has appeared in Harpers, Salon.com, and TheNew Yorker website. Makkai's stories have also been featured on Public Radio International's Selected Shorts and This American Life. [17]
Makkai has taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is on the MFA faculties of Bennington College and Northwestern University. She is the artistic director of StoryStudio Chicago. [18] Makkai has also taught at Lake Forest College [19] and held the Mackey Chair in Creative Writing at Beloit College in Wisconsin. [20]
She has two children and lives in Lake Forest, Illinois. [21] She met her husband, Jon Freeman, at Bread Loaf. [22]
Year | Title | Award | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2017 | Pushcart Prize | Winner | [ citation needed ] | |
2018 | The Great Believers | National Book Award for Fiction | Finalist | [9] |
2019 | Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction | Winner | [8] | |
Pulitzer Prize in Fiction | Finalist | [10] | ||
Los Angeles Times Book Prize | Winner | [11] | ||
American Library Association Stonewall Award | Winner | [12] | ||
Chicago Review of Books Award | Winner | [13] | ||
2024 | I Have Some Questions for You | Aspen Words Literary Prize | Longlist | [23] |
Richard Powers is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. His novel The Echo Maker won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction. He has also won many other awards over the course of his career, including a MacArthur Fellowship. As of 2023, Powers has published thirteen novels and has taught at the University of Illinois and Stanford University. He won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory.
Nnedimma Nkemdili "Nnedi" Okorafor is a Nigerian American writer of science fiction and fantasy for both children and adults. She is best known for her Binti Series and her novels Who Fears Death, Zahrah the Windseeker, Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, Lagoon and Remote Control. She has also written for comics and film.
Benjamin S. Lerner is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. The recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations, Lerner has been a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, among many other honors. Lerner teaches at Brooklyn College, where he was named a Distinguished Professor of English in 2016.
Naomi Alderman is an English novelist, game writer, and television executive producer. She is best known for her speculative science fiction novel The Power, which won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2017 and has been adapted into a television series for Amazon Studios.
Lavie Tidhar is an Israeli-born writer, working across multiple genres. He has lived in the United Kingdom and South Africa for long periods of time, as well as Laos and Vanuatu. As of 2013, Tidhar has lived in London. His novel Osama won the 2012 World Fantasy Award—Novel, beating Stephen King's 11/22/63 and George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons. His novel A Man Lies Dreaming won the £5000 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, for Best British Fiction, in 2015. He won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2017, for Central Station.
Peter Orner is an American writer. He is the author of two novels, two story collections and a book of essays. Orner holds the Professorship of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College and was formerly a professor of creative writing at San Francisco State University. He spent 2016 and 2017 on a Fulbright in Namibia teaching at the University of Namibia.
Charles Chowkai Yu is an American writer. He is the author of the novels How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and Interior Chinatown, as well as the short-story collections Third Class Superhero and Sorry Please Thank You. In 2007 he was named a "5 under 35" honoree by the National Book Foundation. In 2020, Interior Chinatown won the National Book Award for fiction.
The Michigan Quarterly Review is an American literary magazine founded in 1962 and published at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Rebecca Solnit is an American writer. She has written on a variety of subjects, including feminism, the environment, politics, place, and art.
The Texas State University Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is a three-year graduate program at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, USA. Fiction writer Doug Dorst is the current director of the program.
The Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize is a literary prize created in 1988 by the newspaper The Chicago Tribune. It is awarded yearly in two categories: Fiction and Nonfiction. These prizes are awarded to books that "reinforce and perpetuate the values of heartland America."
HP Newquist is an American author whose books cover topics from medicine and music to technology and terror. He is also a museum curator and musician, and has worked as a columnist, publisher, industry analyst, and video director.
Idra Novey is an American novelist, poet, and translator. She translates from Portuguese, Spanish, and Persian and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Colin Winnette is an American novelist, short story writer, and poet.
Ottessa Charlotte Moshfegh is an American author and novelist. Her debut novel, Eileen (2015), won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and was a fiction finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Moshfegh's subsequent novels include My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Death in Her Hands, and Lapvona.
The Masters Review is an American literary magazine and book publisher based in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2011 by founding editor Kim Winternheimer, the publication serves a platform for publishing and discovering new and emerging writers. Since its inception, The Masters Review has been honored by the Independent Publisher Book Awards for Best Short Story Collection by the American Library Association and Foreword Reviews, a fellowship from Oregon Literary Arts for the work it does for new writers, and has stories recognized in The Best of the Net, The Best Small Fictions, and The Million Writers Award, among others. It is distinguished from many other notable literary magazines by actively seeking work from previously unpublished writers.
The Chicago Review of Books is an online literary publication of StoryStudio Chicago that reviews recent books covering diverse genres, presses, voices, and media. The magazine was started in 2016 by founding editor Adam Morgan. It is considered a sister publication of Arcturus, which publishes original fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.
Grand Union: Stories is a 2019 short story collection by Zadie Smith. It was published on 3 October 2019 by Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin Books.
The Great Believers is a historical fiction novel by Rebecca Makkai, published June 4, 2018 by Penguin Books.
I Have Some Questions for You is a literary mystery novel by Rebecca Makkai. The novel received positive critical reception upon release, and spent six weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.