So the annual fiction double issue of the New Yorker is this week, and this year, they've done a new list of 20 authors under 40 to watch. The last time they did this in 1999, David Foster Wallace, William Vollman, Nathan Englander, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jonathan Franzen, Jeffery Eugenides, Michael Chabon, Junot Díaz, Edwidge Dantica were all on the list. Here's the list:
* Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi (Profile | Reviews: ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ | ‘Half a Yellow Sun’)
* Chris Adrian (Reviews: ‘A Better Angel’ | The Children’s Hospital | Gob’s Grief)
* Daniel Alarcón (Review: ‘Lost City Radio’)
* David Bezmozgis (Review: ‘Natasha and Other Stories’)
* Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (Review: ‘Ms. Hempel Chronicles)
* Joshua Ferris (Reviews: ‘The Unnamed’ | ‘Then We Came to the End’)
* Jonathan Safran Foer (Times Topics)
* Nell Freudenberger (Reviews: ‘The Dissident’ | ‘Lucky Girls’)
* Rivka Galchen (Review: ‘Atmospheric Disturbances’)
* Nicole Krauss (Reviews: ‘The History of Love’ | ‘Man Walks Into a Room’
* Yiyun Li (Reviews: ‘The Vagrants’ | ‘A Thousand Years of Good Prayers’)
* Dinaw Mengestu (Review: ‘The Beautiful Thing That Heaven Bears’)
* Philipp Meyer (Review: ‘American Rust’)
* C. E. Morgan (Review: ‘All the Living’)
* Téa Obreht
* Z Z Packer (Review: ‘Drinking Coffee Elsewhere’)
* Karen Russell
* Salvatore Scibona
* Gary Shteyngart (Times Topics)
* Wells Tower (Profile | Review: ‘Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned’
How many of those have you read? I've read only three -- Meyer, Tower, and Ferris -- and I know about a few more, but those three that I have read are absolutely phenomenal. Tower is an astonishing short story writer and I can't wait to see what he does if he writes a novel, we all know how great 'Then We Came To The End' was, and 'American Rust' should have won the Pulitzer.
I wonder where these guys will be in 10 years.
* Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi (Profile | Reviews: ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ | ‘Half a Yellow Sun’)
* Chris Adrian (Reviews: ‘A Better Angel’ | The Children’s Hospital | Gob’s Grief)
* Daniel Alarcón (Review: ‘Lost City Radio’)
* David Bezmozgis (Review: ‘Natasha and Other Stories’)
* Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (Review: ‘Ms. Hempel Chronicles)
* Joshua Ferris (Reviews: ‘The Unnamed’ | ‘Then We Came to the End’)
* Jonathan Safran Foer (Times Topics)
* Nell Freudenberger (Reviews: ‘The Dissident’ | ‘Lucky Girls’)
* Rivka Galchen (Review: ‘Atmospheric Disturbances’)
* Nicole Krauss (Reviews: ‘The History of Love’ | ‘Man Walks Into a Room’
* Yiyun Li (Reviews: ‘The Vagrants’ | ‘A Thousand Years of Good Prayers’)
* Dinaw Mengestu (Review: ‘The Beautiful Thing That Heaven Bears’)
* Philipp Meyer (Review: ‘American Rust’)
* C. E. Morgan (Review: ‘All the Living’)
* Téa Obreht
* Z Z Packer (Review: ‘Drinking Coffee Elsewhere’)
* Karen Russell
* Salvatore Scibona
* Gary Shteyngart (Times Topics)
* Wells Tower (Profile | Review: ‘Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned’
How many of those have you read? I've read only three -- Meyer, Tower, and Ferris -- and I know about a few more, but those three that I have read are absolutely phenomenal. Tower is an astonishing short story writer and I can't wait to see what he does if he writes a novel, we all know how great 'Then We Came To The End' was, and 'American Rust' should have won the Pulitzer.
I wonder where these guys will be in 10 years.
