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Jennifer Egan

Author of The Candy House and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad

  • About Jennifer Egan

    Jennifer Egan is the author of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad. Published in 2010, the book soared to the top of many publications’ Best of 2010 lists, including The New York TimesThe Washington Post, Time, SlateSalon, and People. In addition to being awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, A Visit from the Goon Squad won the National Book Critics Circle award for fiction, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the IMPAC/Dublin Literary Award, and the Irish Book Award.  Recently, Goon Squad appeared as one of the New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.

    Her latest best-selling novel, The Candy House, is a “sibling novel” to her Pulitzer Prize- and ​NBCC Award-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad—an electrifying, deeply moving novel about the quest for authenticity and meaning in a world where memories and identities are no longer private. It was named one of The New York Times Book Review‘s Top 10 books of 2022, and appeared on countless other Best of the Year lists, including Entertainment WeeklyThe EconomistSlate, the Philadelphia Inquirer, NPR, and Time Magazine. President Obama also included The Candy House on his 2022 Summer Reading List.

    Jennifer Egan’s previous novel, the noir Manhattan Beach, was a New York Times bestseller that the Boston Globe heralded as “Egan’s most remarkable accomplishment yet.” Egan’s first historical novel, it delves into the underworld of World War II era New York, with the story of a young woman who becomes the first female diver in the Brooklyn Naval Yard, navigating a world populated by gangsters, sailors, bankers, and union men. Manhattan Beach was awarded the 2018 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

    Jennifer Egan is also the author of The Invisible Circus, a novel of the counterculture that became a feature film staring Cameron Diaz; Look at Me, a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction in 2001; Emerald City and Other Stories; and the Gothic thriller The Keep, which was a national bestseller. Her short stories have appeared in The New YorkerHarper’ sGrantaMcSweeney’s, and other magazines. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, and a Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library.

    Egan’s reported journalism has appeared frequently in The New York Times magazine since 1996. Her 2002 cover story on homeless children received the Carroll Kowal Journalism Award, and her article “The Bipolar Kid” received a 2009 Outstanding Media Award for Science and Health Reporting from the National Alliance on Mental Illness.  Her most recent nonfiction article, a year-long exploration of street homelessness and supportive housing in New York City, appeared in the New Yorker in September, 2023.  Jennifer Egan has served as President of PEN America and twice as Artist-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, where she has delivered lectures on many authors, including Anthony Trollope, Edith Wharton, and Chester Himes.

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  • Speaking Topics

    Technology as Inspiration: Art, iPhones, and Why Fiction Matters in our Digital Times

    Jennifer Egan, who has used PowerPoint, Twitter, and various kinds of electronic communication in her novels, examines the ongoing impact of technology on her fiction, both as a structural catalyst and as subject matter. The talk includes a dissection of her writing process along with a slideshow demonstrating how a picture book she read aloud to her sons, combined with an iPhone To-Do list, inspired a chapter of her 2022 novel, The Candy House (a companion to A Visit From the Goon Squad). Egan explains how digital genres can, paradoxically, be the best way to accomplish old-fashioned storytelling.

    Making Historical Fiction out of Oral History and Hard Fact

    From 2005 to 2017, Jennifer Egan researched the various maritime realms of her bestselling World War II-era novel, Manhattan Beach: women doing war work at Brooklyn Navy Yard, deep-sea salvage diving, organized crime, and the merchant marine. Using a slideshow of photos, letters, and oral history interviews, she traces the genealogy of her novel through images and anecdotes from her years of research and family history, revealing how the nuts and bolts of her story were inspired, and shaped, by historical artifacts.

    Can a Fiction Writer be a Journalist?

    Since 1996, Egan has written longform reported journalistic pieces on such diverse topics as fashion models, Catholic seminarians, the bipolar diagnosis in children and most recently, after a year of reporting, street homelessness and supportive housing in New York City. Here she discusses how and why she turned to journalism, how differently the two writing processes unfold, and why journalism has become essential to her writing life, interacting with—and even inspiring—works of fiction.

  • Video

  • Praise for Jennifer Egan

    Wow! Jennifer was a star. The audience was fascinated with her description of her writing methodology. Great questions from the audience too. We were extremely pleased. She is delightful.

    Mississippi Book Festival

    We all thought Jennifer Egan’s visit was a huge success. She was a fabulous speaker/interlocutor: enthusiastic, engaged, patient and generous. Our students especially appreciated the opportunity to hear from her and speak with her—some of them have told me it was a highlight of their experience here at Berkeley.

    University of California, Berkeley, English Department

    “The Library community absolutely adored Jennifer. She was amazing and her presentation was wonderful. She left the crowd wanting more. The event ran very smoothly and Jennifer was a delight to work with.”

    New Canaan Library

    “Jennifer’s visit to Johns Hopkins yesterday was a marvelous success from beginning to end. She gave the students a great time in the class, then delivered a quite wonderful talk and reading – one of the best we’ve had in a high-flying series. And throughout it all she was kindness itself to all and sundry.”

    Johns Hopkins University

    Jennifer was an absolute delight, and the students and faculty loved meeting her and were very inspired by both the Q&A and the reading. They’ve been raving about her visit since she left! Quite a few of the professors in the English Department taught Manhattan Beach and/or A Visit from the Goon Squad, so the turn out for both events was great! Jennifer was one of the easiest and most laid back writers we’ve ever brought to campus. It was an absolute pleasure and an honor.

    Trinity University

    It was spectacular. I think it’s safe to say that everyone was wowed by the whole thing.  Many people in the audience thanked me after the event.

    Yale University, Davenport College, Yale University, Davenport College

    Pen Pals with Jenifer Egan was a tremendous success! Jennifer’s insightful look into her writing process and extensive research had the audiences thoroughly engaged on both days. And what a lovely person she is!

    Friends of the Hennepin County Library

    Everyone was charmed and fascinated by her talk.  At the event last night many people stopped me and told me how wonderful they thought she was. She gave us a lot to chew on which is a good thing. It was very apparent to me that her generosity of spirit coupled with her enormous discipline in work and editing is what moves her from a very good writer to a great one.  It is a good lesson not only for students but for all of us.

    Festival of the Arts BOCA

    The reading was fantastic!  Ms. Egan was really wonderful—professional, amiable and generous—and everyone raved about her reading, her interaction with the audience and her willingness to share some personal anecdotes.

    Randolph-Macon College

    The event was great! Jenny was extremely generous and receptive to our students during the afternoon event, and she spoke about her early experiences as writer in a way that was relatable and thoughtful. She also gave a truly fantastic reading. The audience actually ‘oohed and ahhed’ during certain moments (which I’ve never witnessed before), Jenny’s general bearing when speaking and when answering questions was both warm and captivating, and she carried the room with incredible grace and charm.

    University of Chicago

    Jennifer Egan’s visit was a huge success. She truly understood the program before she even arrived on campus and, as a result, was warm and generous with all of  the students. She took them seriously, and spoke with them rather than at them. The students spoke about how much they appreciated her prepared remarks, high praise from adolescents who can be pretty tough when it comes to appraising those who speak to them. In short, this was about as good as it could be.

    Kingswood Oxford School

    I think Jennifer Egan is among the most brilliant, gracious guests we’ve had in 12 years. We had well over 450 people at her events, which is more than we expected.  I’m still fielding e-mails from people who wrote to say how charming, articulate, and generous Egan was. Her accessibility brought people closer, and then her native intelligence kept them there, waiting to hear what she would say next. Several people said these were the best author events they’d ever been to.

    Lighthouse Writers Workshop

    Jenny and her talk on the intersection between her fiction and nonfiction writing was absolutely great. The audience loved her and we had wonderful turnout at our before and after parties, which is always a sign that folks want more contact with a beloved author.

    Seattle Arts & Lectures

    Jennifer’s talk was perfectly pitched and expertly and genially delivered. The audience was clearly ‘tuned in’ (and I think also charmed): responsive during the presentation and enthusiastically appreciative afterward. She was incredibly generous about everything involved in this event, signing books for more than an hour after the talk, and chatting warmly with each and every person in the line.  All through the reception, people came up to me to say what a terrific event it had been. I heard ‘best ever’ more often than I would ever have dared hope, and I know Jenny’s presentation and wonderfully friendly, natural manner had a lot to do with that.

    Northeast Modern Language Association

    It was an honor to have Jenny come to our institute. She was incredibly insightful, funny, and reflective. I could tell by the questions students asked during the Q+A that they were really engaged, and that’s a testament to Jenny’s openness. Few speakers have been as generous with their time and thoughts as she.

    Columbia Institute for Religion

    Our best guess is that 140 people attended the reading—standing room only.  This is the largest crowd that we have ever had at one of our Distinguished Writers events.  Yes, she was very well-received–it was an attentive, adoring audience.  Jennifer was nice enough to sign the unsold copies of A Visit from the Goon Squad for later sale in the Wellesley College bookstore.  The event was a huge success.

    Wellesley College

    In my opinion, Jenny’s visit was the most exciting and successful of my time here.  Jenny gave so much, staying beyond her allotted time to answer questions from the many eager students, and then even fielding questions from the students who lined up to get their books signed after the reading was over.  She had a gift for keeping the audience engaged, and she also made the large hall feel intimate.  She’s wonderful in every way.

    Amherst College

    The event was fabulous. Everyone was engaged and involved in the process and Egan responded so generously to everyone.  Egan’s responses were insightful, astute, and penetrating. She was generous to the sophisticated and simple alike.

    Bergen Community College

    Everything went perfectly and Jenny’s talk easily exceeded our high expectations. I have been receiving rave reviews from attendees since we concluded yesterday afternoon. Thank you for helping us pull off a wonderfully successful fundraiser for the Ridgewood Library.

    Ridgewood Library

    Jenny was the best.  We are all charmed by her down-to-earth friendliness and utter lack of pretention, as well as being spookily smart!  She read wonderfully and just the right amount.  But the Q & A was perhaps the most surprisingly rich we have had in ages:  her access to her own process is amazing, and she speaks so eloquently, yet self-effacingly, about it.  We all felt we learned a great deal about how she WORKS, her mind’s mechanisms. She is unflagging in her cheerfulness. We would have Jenny back any day, or for forever.

    University of Texas at Austin

    Praise for The Candy House

    Mesmerizing…A thought-provoking examination of how and why we change.

    People

    This is minimalist maximalism. It’s as if Egan compressed a big 19th-century triple-decker novel onto a flash drive… Egan goes all in on the power of storytelling and of fiction.

    Dwight Garner, The New York Times

    The novel — with its prismatic plotting and ever-shifting chorus of seekers, kooks, and visionaries — feels less like a house than a honeycomb full of fantastical rooms, each one alive and thrumming with bright, weird humanity.

    Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly

    A glorious, hideous fun house that feels more familiar than sci-fi, all rendered with Egan's signature inventive confidence and—perhaps most impressive of all—heart. The Candy House is of its moment, with all that implies.

    The New York Times Book Review, Top 10 Books of 2022

    Praise for Manhattan Beach

    “…dares to satisfy us in a way that stories of an earlier age used to.”

    Ron Charles, The Washington Post

    Egan’s most remarkable accomplishment yet. . . . At once a suspenseful novel of noir intrigue, a gorgeously wrought and richly allusive literary tapestry, and a transporting work of lyrical beauty and emotional heft, Manhattan Beach is a magnificent achievement.

    The Boston Globe

    Egan’s prose is transparent and elegant. . . .But the chief joy of reading Manhattan Beach lies in diving under the surface pleasures of the plot (which are plentiful — it’s immersive and compelling), and sinking slowly to its dark and unknowable depths. There are deep truths there.

    Vox

    A novel that deserves to join the canon of New York stories.

    Amor Towles, New York Times Book Review

    Immensely satisfying . . . [Manhattan Beach] is a dreadnought of a World War II-era historical novel, bristling with armaments yet intimate in tone. It’s an old-fashioned page-turner, tweaked by this witty and sophisticated writer so that you sometimes feel she has retrofitted sleek new engines inside a craft owned for too long by James Jones and Herman Wouk. . . . She is masterly at displaying mastery. . . . Egan’s fiction buzzes with factual crosscurrents, casually deployed. . . . Egan works a formidable kind of magic . . . This is a big novel that moves with agility.

    Dwight Garner, New York Times

    A bounteous miracle that makes you feel that past time, and our time, differently; everything becomes freshly energized, infused with humanity, vital, sad, and full of importance. To see the world through Egan’s eyes is to be moved, through language, to new adoration of the world. I don’t know a better writer working today. There is a generosity in her prose that is vastly enlivening to its reader and brings about that beautiful effect fiction sometimes causes: more, and better-grounded, fondness for reality, just as it is.

    George Saunders

    Praise for A Visit from the Goon Squad

    Pitch perfect. . . . Darkly, rippingly funny. . . . Egan possesses a satirist’s eye and a romance novelist’s heart.

    The New York Times Book Review

    Egan’s bravura fifth book samples from different eras (the glory days of punk; a slick, socially networked future) and styles (sly satire, moving tragedy, even PowerPoint) to explore the interplay between music and the rough rhythms of life.

    Vogue
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