The New Yorker’s 20 novelists under 40
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Next week, the New Yorker will publish its 20 Under 40 fiction list. Today the New York Times has the list, which includes California residents Yiyun Li, Daniel Alarcon, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum and Salvatore Scibona. At least, I think Scibona still lives here -- I once ran into him at the bank, and I assume he might be around any L.A. corner.
The list, by age:
Téa Obreht, 24Karen Russell, 28Dinaw Mengestu, 31Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 32Daniel Alarcón, 33C.E. Morgan, 33Jonathan Safran Foer, 33Rivka Galchen, 34Joshua Ferris, 35Nell Freudenberger, 35Nicole Krauss, 35Salvatore Scibona, 35Philipp Meyer, 36David Bezmozgis, 37Yiyun Li, 37ZZ Packer, 37Gary Shteyngart, 37Wells Tower, 37Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, 38Chris Adrian, 39
Jonathan Safran Foer was an acknowledged frontrunner when the Observer published its preview of the list last month. The 33-year-old has published two novels and one work of nonfiction, won awards, had a movie made of one of his books and published short fiction and criticism. Just about the only thing he doesn’t do is Tweet.
Among Foer’s many accolades was making the Granta’s 2007 Best Young American Writers list. Seven others on this list also first appeared on that one, including Yiyun Li, whose first novel, “The Vagrants” was based on an incident in China in 1979. “It’s hard to make this world real,” she told the L.A. Times. “It’s so foreign to most of my readers.”
In the coming weeks, the New Yorker will publish short fiction by all of the writers on its list.
-- Carolyn Kellogg
twitter.com/paperhaus
Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.
