Virginia, HELP.
So who are your favorite*
- Female
- Contemporary
- Novelists
- Under 40
Later, I came up with Zadie Smith. That was it. Is it just me or is there a massive black hole in fiction? Where are the young female novelists? Do they exist? Are they having trouble getting published? Is it just that women are all writing non-fiction pseudo memoirs right now? What the hell is going on? Please leave some names in the comments and prove me wrong!
9 comments:
Vendela Vida, Julie Orringer, Asali Solomon, Becky Curtis, Karen Russell, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Ceridwen Dovey...just to name a few! Don't worry.
hi jessica,
the thing that immediately popped into my head is karen russell's short story collection, ST LUCY'S HOME FOR GIRLS RAISED BY WOLVES, which is awesome; I think you would love it. russell is still under thirty, i think, and definitely under forty. judy budnitz' stories are interestingly weird, though i haven't read too many of them.
also, you forgot leanne shapton!
Nicole Krauss.
There's always, say, Nell Freudenberger, Marisha Pessl, Curtis Sittenfeld, or Jhumpa Lahiri (42), to name a few. Not saying they're the greatest, but they are at least young and female.
these are all very helpful suggestions. there are a few people on this page that i've read and i have to say i really cannot stand - but, that's alright. they fit the bill!
yes of course i love leanne although i'm not sure i would consider her a novelist - not yet anyway!
Selah Saterstrom. Certainly fits the bill (and she's a fellow alum). 40 is a pretty tough number though. Everybody loves a phenom (for the first 10 minutes at least) but by and large the rule of 10 hits novelists just like anyone else.
Jim Hines did an informal sort of survey, and the average age for pubbing a first novel is 36 (http://www.boingboing.net/2010/05/13/first-novel-survey-r.html)
Rifka Galchen? Lydia Peelle?
She's over 40, but lately I can't get enough Anne Lamott. She probably most famous for her non-fiction (Bird By Bird, her Salon columns) but has written some great novels.
Ooh yeah. I've never read her, but I have some friends who are obsessed with Lamott.
Post a Comment