June 2nd, 2010 / 6:26 pm
Web Hype
New Yorker’s 20 under 40 Revealed
The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 list has been revealed:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 32; Chris Adrian, 39; Daniel Alarcón, 33; David Bezmozgis, 37; Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, 38; Joshua Ferris, 35; Jonathan Safran Foer, 33; Nell Freudenberger, 35; Rivka Galchen, 34; Nicole Krauss, 35; Yiyun Li, 37; Dinaw Mengestu, 31; Philipp Meyer, 36; C. E. Morgan, 33; Téa Obreht, 24; Z Z Packer, 37; Karen Russell, 28; Salvatore Scibona, 35; Gary Shteyngart, 37; and Wells Tower, 37.
Winners of our picks contest to come. What do you think of the list?
Tags: 20 under 40, new yorker
Boring.
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tao lin
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June 2nd, 2010 / 9:04 pmderrrrrrrks—
Do you ever, ever, ever take Tao Lin’s dick out of your mouth? I mean, EVER? I know you can breathe thru your nose, but don’t you have to eat?
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June 2nd, 2010 / 10:12 pmJak Cardini—
ha.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 1:53 amstephen—
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3C573BJB-c&feature=related
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This list reflects how little I know about what is going on in the literary world. Scary.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 32 (never heard of)
Chris Adrian, 39; (never heard of)
Daniel Alarcón, 33; (never heard of)
David Bezmozgis, 37; (Natasha was pretty good)
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, 38; (never heard of)
Joshua Ferris, 35; (tried reading but got interrupted)
Jonathan Safran Foer, 33; (what a surprise!)
Nell Freudenberger, 35; (never heard of)
Rivka Galchen, 34; (never heard of)
Nicole Krauss, 35; (boring)
Yiyun Li, 37; (never heard of)
Dinaw Mengestu, 31; (never heard of)
Philipp Meyer, 36; (never heard of)
C. E. Morgan, 33; (never heard of)
Téa Obreht, 24; (never heard of)
Z Z Packer, 37; (Drinking Coffee Elsewhere or something?)
Karen Russell, 28; (never heard of)
Salvatore Scibona, 35; (never heard of)
Gary Shteyngart, 37; (I’ve heard of and I like this guy)
Wells Tower, 37. (I liked the Leopard story a lot. Plus, he’s the first writer I’ve read to start off a line of dialogue with, “Fuckin’, what about the…” I start many of my spoken sentences with this and he nailed it.)
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June 2nd, 2010 / 11:05 pmthad—
i feel the same way. Most of the authors I know and love are not contemporary, are in fact already dead. I would start reading some of these to familiarize myself with what’s going on today, but I’m already so backed up on my personal “to-read” booklist. I will forever be playing the catch up game, until I die, hallelujah.
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June 2nd, 2010 / 11:43 pmjesusangelgarcia—
I’m mostly w/ you on this, Gian, except for Scibona. I read his “The End” (Graywolf), short-list for National Book Award, I think. I bet Mr. Higgs would dig it. Chris?
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June 3rd, 2010 / 6:17 amLily Hoang—
Good call. Good book, yes.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 9:54 amChristopher Higgs—
I’m not familiar with Salvatore Scibona – will have to check him out. I will say that Sarah Shun-lien Bynum’s Madeline is Sleeping (I think is the title?) kicks some ass — it was also shortlisted for the NBA, I think.
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z z packer has gotten more mileage out of writing 8 straightforward stories than any other person in the face of time
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Sarah Shun-lien Bynum is pretty great and I’ve enjoyed Foer (sometimes in spite of myself) but beyond that I haven’t really read any of these dudes, I suspect (based on the names I do recognize) this is a mostly boring, obvious list. Bynum is good to see there, though. Honestly thought she was a lot younger.
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Wow, I went to school with Ce Morgan and Chris Adrian. I had no idea good things could happen to nice people in this world.
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Who the shit? One thing I didn’t expect from this list is to have absolutely no idea who 11 of the writers are.
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June 2nd, 2010 / 11:45 pmjesusangelgarcia—
I’m glad I’m not the only one. I know ten.
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I left David Bezmozgis off my list because I was under the assumption that the list was comprised of working, U.S. authors, and I thought he was Canadian.
Oh well. Five out of twenty isn’t bad.
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I liked Packer’s collection.
The rest of the list is a gigantic “Meh.”
Daniel Alarcon may set a record for how many “X under Y” lists one writer can make.
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Yo ho ho. I have opinions about this. Save em for later though, I’m busy.
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June 2nd, 2010 / 11:49 pmjesusangelgarcia—
Don’t hold back, Rebekah. Seriously.
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7 right. Some surprises.
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automatically looked up the youngest person, tea obreht, and found she doesn’t have a wikipedia. lost all interest, must not be very relevant
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June 3rd, 2010 / 2:30 amthad—
haha thats pretty true. wiki is where its at.
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Happy I felt throwing Galchen in there even though I thought her novel was ghastly mediocre.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 5:34 amChris—
Nicole Krauss is fucking awful.
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Looks like they skimmed Granta’s Best Under 40 and then asked Sterling Litastic, William Morris and ICM who their forthcoming debuts were. A few are good, many overrated, many are totally unseasoned, a few are insultingly obvious “diversity” choices etc. Kind of gross.
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Who are the diversity choices?
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I should say I don’t mean the others are not equally mediocre
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Not so much that anyone who is “diverse” doesn’t belong, so much as the list seems insultingly balanced to encompass every comfy subgenre of identity-driven writing… everyone from female (and male!) fabulists to boyish big novel writers and witty Hebric folk… no one straying too far from his or her category, no one challenging anything dangerous…
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the single author i know of on this list i can’t handle at all (gee guess who it is)
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June 2nd, 2010 / 11:52 pmjesusangelgarcia—
really? his first novel was a mind-blower. that energy? c’mon…
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June 3rd, 2010 / 6:33 ammichael—
agreed
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No love for Joshua Ferris, guys? I loved Then We Came to the End.
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June 2nd, 2010 / 8:20 pmryanchang—
agreed. Then We Came to the End is awesome. the others i havent heard of/elicited a ’surprise surprise’ from me
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June 3rd, 2010 / 8:32 amh hg—
I really really hated TWCTTE. Don’t believe I made it past 150pp on that one. I remember being genuinely confused that a lot of people liked that book. I thought that it was boring and unoriginal.
As my father says, I guess that’s why they make more than one flavor of ice cream.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 9:02 amJordan—
No, no love for Then We Came to the End.
June 3rd, 2010 / 10:54 amJoseph Riippi—
Then We Came To the End steals its title from the opening line of Delillo’s Americana (Ferris is upfront about this somewhere in the acknowledgements). After finishing TWCTTE, and thinking, “eh, that was funny.” (I write ads during the day, too, and the office humor was very true-to-agency-life) I saw the note about Delillo and thought, “Hey, I should read that Delillo…never got ’round to it.”
And then I did, and it turns out TWCTTE is basically Americana crossed with The Office.
Moral of the story: Why read anything if there’s still something by Delillo you haven’t read?
June 3rd, 2010 / 9:31 amBAC—
could have been 200 pages less, but it was solid enough, though eugenides owns the first person plural.
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looks new yorkerish enough. good to see russell, adrian and tower. you can keep the rest.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 8:39 amdemi-puppet—
Yeah, that’s it! There are some talented writers on this list, but it’s so predictably “New Yorkerish” that it’s kind of a joke.
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I’m excited that I’m not familiar with twelve of these writers. This wasn’t the predictable list I thought it would be (aside from a few obvious choices). I have some serious reading to do!
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How does a 24 year old whose first novel isn’t coming out until next year get placed on a list like this?
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June 2nd, 2010 / 8:21 pmComment2000—
Solid representation.
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June 2nd, 2010 / 10:16 pmJak Cardini—
srsly
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Feels like the New Yorker should’ve made this the “JSF Memorial List” or something because his inclusion was one big ddduuuhhh (note: this is not a comment on JSF’s writing).
Rivka Galchen is a major cutie.
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I believe the 24-year-old had a short story published in the NYer at some point.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 10:55 amJoseph Riippi—
She did. It was good.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 2:23 pmscgarz—
i like 24 yr olds but i didn’t like that story
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Pink, Sam.
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I guess the New Yorker editors have read a manuscript of that novel?
Does Packer, perhaps, have a big novel forthcoming? That’s the only excuse I can find for putting her on the list.
Haven’t read most of these folks, though I’ve heard good things about some of them, including Chris Adrian. Galchen’s book was disappointment — was supposed to be riproaringly funny and somesuch — I just found it obvious and belabored after awhile. Read Morgan’s novel — the language was precious. Liked Foer’s first novel, wasn’t able to get into the second, and am not interested in hearing a twit’s opinions about eating meat.
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June 2nd, 2010 / 11:55 pmjesusangelgarcia—
why is he a twit?
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Thought this was interesting. Here’s how the list breaks down in terms of MFA Programs:
IOWA (6)
Chris Adrian
Daniel Alarcón
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
Yiyun Li
Z Z Packer
Salvatore Scibona
COLUMBIA (4)
Rivka Galchen
Dinaw Mengestu
Karen Russell
Wells Tower
JOHNS HOPKINS (1)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
UC IRVINE (1)
Joshua Ferris
NYU (1)
Nell Freudenberger
CUNY (1)
Gary Shteyngart,
CORNELL (1)
Téa Obreht
UT AUSTIN (1)
Philipp Meyer
NO MFA (4)
Jonathan Safran Foer
Nicole Krauss,
David Bezmozgis (MFA in film from USC film school)
C. E. Morgan
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June 2nd, 2010 / 11:56 pmjesusangelgarcia—
Impressive info. I like it that these two — Jonathan Safran Foer & Nicole Krauss — are partners and writers and both don’t have MFAs.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 9:03 amJordan—
They have JCOs.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 9:33 amBAC—
Joyce Carol Oates, ha. That’s about all you need.
This list is important to those 20 people lucky enough (or young enough, or savvy enough, or – sure, why not? in some cases – talented enough) to be on The List and it’s also important to the rest who wish they were one of the 20.
It’s a gimmick.
Wells Tower is interesting.
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I think JSf with his Joyce Carol Oates as teacher, Princeton degree were going to have to file under MFA.
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June 2nd, 2010 / 8:32 pmSalvatore Pane—
Yeah, I was just going to mention this. Having JCO as your thesis adviser is completely comparable.
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Adrian and Russell are awesome. I loved Russell’s debut collection. I had no idea JSF was so young. His smugness clearly ages him.
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June 2nd, 2010 / 10:46 pmTim Horvath—
Agreed on Karen Russell. Title story and “ZZ’s Sleep-away Camp…” with its brilliant insomnia balloon and the one about the ice-skating yetis–her presence is no surprise and I’m glad to see it there.
Scibona’s book is quite amazing in an understated way.
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June 2nd, 2010 / 11:59 pmjesusangelgarcia—
I liked Scibona a bit in parts, especially the language, but I kept getting sidetracked while reading it over many many weeks. Hard to say whether that was life intervening or the book just not compelling me.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 1:21 pmTim Horvath—
This one took concentration for me, too. It felt like work, but rewarding work.
June 3rd, 2010 / 4:15 pmAmber—
I’ve been meaning to check out Scibona. Sounds like I’ll probably want to do that while I’m on vacation or at least less distracted.
June 3rd, 2010 / 8:14 pmjesusangelgarcia—
Glad to hear, Tim. I thought it was just me. For the record, I’m all for concentration, but I have to have the time and sometimes I just don’t.
Yeah, Amber, I suggest reading it when you have time to crank through it in a weekend or a week. Otherwise, I dunno… I didn’t approach it that way and it took far too long and I know I didn’t read it well, ya know?
Wells Tower is able to write an overly stuffy and restrained version of a George Saunders story.
Galvhen’s book sounds really compelling until you read it…
A few are impressive writers of fart jokes with Big Important Events in the background (I’m looking at you, Foer!)
A couple are talented.
The rest have good agents.
Yawn…
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June 3rd, 2010 / 11:13 amComment2000—
I don’t think Wells Tower is writing restrained versions of Saunders stories. Saunders is a restrained version of Saunders – full of anger about “bigger issues” which he manages to temper and turn into very funny stories that endear him to his readers. Tower writes straight-forward, almost simple stories that are personal in nature. He might belong on a silly list like this New Yorker list because he has a way with language that indicates a potential for greater things. His stories are amusing because he can come up with a funny phrase or situation now and then. But he’s not creating the worlds that Saunders creates in his best work.
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hewooo everyone! this list is so fucking awesome! im eating dinner right now, but ill get to the entries later tonight!
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40 oz, which couple are talented?
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June 2nd, 2010 / 8:54 pmRyan Call—
the married couple?
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June 2nd, 2010 / 9:00 pm40 oz.—
I mean, they’re all talented. It’s just that most are also interchangeable.
You’d hope a best of generation list would include a few writers who have’t simply learned to ape the dominant aesthetic. These guys are part of the whole reason we increasingly think of the short story, the novel, as a form.
I’m sure they’re all nice people. But if asked to name writers of stunning books, sentences, daring, emotion…would you produce such a list?
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June 3rd, 2010 / 12:00 amjesusangelgarcia—
Are they all on major publishers? Any indies in there? This would be telling, I think.
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blah
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Call me cynical, but I only want to read writers without MFAs or obvious connections. I know that’s probably unfair, but that list is troubling. The best writers do NOT necessarily go to school for it. That leaves the last two and that’s it.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 12:01 amjesusangelgarcia—
Yes.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 1:55 pmMike Meginnis—
Guess I better not finish my MFA so I can be a good writer…
Does it help if some of the instructors hated you?
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June 3rd, 2010 / 8:15 pmjesusangelgarcia—
I think so, Mike. I think that’s a sign of true artistry.
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They write stories people like to read and they write sentences that make sense. I can’t do that. And I’ve tried. So good for them. Applause.
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June 2nd, 2010 / 9:31 pmGreg Gerke—
Oh I like to read your stuff and it makes sense to me.
The NYer is the wrong entity to be doing this because of their interests. Most all of the writers have been published in the NYer.
Do we reread this writers? Do they inspire us? I’ll give the first Ferris novel it’s due. It’s holds up the whole way through. But then what? I reread Scott Garson, I reread Joanna Ruocco – that Caketrain story is otherworldly.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 12:01 amjesusangelgarcia—
That’s cute, Lily.
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I have no investment in this list one way or the other but there are no surprises and it would have been nice to see surprises. Many of the entries on the list feel like they would have been relevant three or four years ago. The list feels… dated more than anything.
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Here was my list:
* julie orringer
* nathan englander
* joshua ferris
* wells tower
* aravind adiga
* justin taylor
* gary shteyngart
* maile meloy
* jonathan safran foer
* benjamin percy
* jesse ball
* nell freudenberger
* nick mcdonell
* daniel alarcon
* uzodinma iweala
* salvatore scibona
* rivka galchen
* tom bissell
* john wray
* yiyun li
Is similar and (when not the same) largely interchangable with the list. Except I am a bit shocked by the Tea Obreht addition (and the other three largely unknowns: Shun-lien Bynum, Meyer, and Morgan). But of course NYer wanted to be unpredictable—and, they hope, prophetic. Right?
Good writers, all the rest, no doubt. Look forward to reading more from the other four.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 1:35 amStu—
Honestly, I’m surprised that McDonell is NOT on it. Not that I particularly enjoy his writing, but he is… “coming up” as they say. Aren’t they making a movie out of “Twelve?”
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Surprised Joshua Cohen didn’t make the cut, with Witz being reviewed well in the New Yorker and all.
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June 2nd, 2010 / 11:26 pmLily Hoang—
he’s way too good, too challenging, too audacious a writer. the list is *safe.*
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June 2nd, 2010 / 11:53 pmMike Meginnis—
Yeah, I never even considered him a possibility. He’s way too much work, way too much fun.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 1:41 pmJ.D.—
This made me wonder about the fact that DFW was included on the ‘99 list. His fiction certainly falls into the ‘challenging and audacious’ category. I wonder if he would have been included had he not been such a celebrated, accessible essayist. Infinite Jest definitely gave him some lit celebrity status, but would the New Yorker have included him based on the content of his fiction alone?
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June 3rd, 2010 / 10:28 pmJibba Jabba—
I think so. Everyone was talking about him, and the time everyone was talking about him pretty much coincided with list. Good enough for them.
June 3rd, 2010 / 11:09 pmalan—
Well reviewed? Witz was “briefly noted” in the New Yorker, and that brief note contained phrases like “self-serious.”
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This was mine:
Joshua Cohen
Jonathan Safran Foer*
Michelle Tea
Catherynne M. Valente
Curtis Sittenfeld
Myla Goldberg
Gary Shteyngart*
Ekaterina Sedia
Jeffrey Renard Allen
Sister Souljah
Michael Muhammad Knight
Zadie Smith (British…)
Jessica Anthony
Tao Lin
Victor LaValle
Miranda July
Joey Comeau
ZZ Packer*
Asha Bandele
Joshua Ferris*
I only got 4 correct. Oh well!
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June 3rd, 2010 / 1:12 amzzzzzipp—
joey comeau would never have zipped his way onto his list
ZZZIPPP THOUGHT COHEN OR LIN EVEN HAD A CHANCE…
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June 3rd, 2010 / 1:13 amzzzzzipp—
onto that list
ZZZZIPP IS HAVING TROUBLE RIGHT NOW
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June 3rd, 2010 / 1:32 amStu—
I’m sure that if Tao wills it, he will be on the next. He’ll still be under 40 in ten years.
June 3rd, 2010 / 10:04 amd—
Yes, I knew a fair number of the people I picked would never make it, but I didn’t know who else to choose in their place. I picked Curtis Sittenfeld because her mom was my high school librarian.
Comeau’s LOCKPICK PORNOGRAPHY should be considered one of the great novels of our time.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 3:11 pmzzzzzipp—
FIRST TIME THROUGH ZZZZIPP DIDN’T MAKE IT PAST THE THIRD CHAPTER
AND THERE WAS NO BERT HEAD OR ANY HINT OF A BERT HEAD
YOU NEED TO AT LEAST INTRODUCE THE BERT HEAD BY THE THIRD CHAPTER IF IT’S GOING TO BE ON THE COVER
The buzz about Joshua Cohen’s novel Witz is starting to get loud, but I still havent spoken with anyone who’s actually read the thing. Anybody here read it and care to comment?
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June 3rd, 2010 / 12:10 amBlake Butler—
my review of the book is here http://believermag.com/issues/201006/?read=review_cohen
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June 3rd, 2010 / 1:47 amMatt—
Thanks, though I outside of a plot summary I still dont have much of an idea if its worth investing the time to the tune of 800+ pages.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 2:03 amBlake Butler—
the rest of the review is in the issue
yes, it is very much worth the time.
June 3rd, 2010 / 1:57 amKyle Minor—
Blake,
The online version cuts off after two paragraphs. Can you post it here, or will that get you in trouble? I went to the store to get it today, but they only had the May issue.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 6:19 amLily Hoang—
i’ll echo blake: yes, it is very much worth the time.
Mine and my partner’s list. 7 right:
Wells Tower
Jonathan Safran Foer
Benjamin Percy
Anthony Doerr
Miranda July
Joshua Cohen
Charles D’Ambrosio
Yiyun Lee
Chris Adrian
Olga Grushim
Martha McPhee
Joshua Ferris
Nicole Krauss
ZZ Packer
Alix Ohlin
Brady Udall
Rebecca Curtis
Augusten Burroughs
Mark Richart
Nick Kosc
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June 3rd, 2010 / 10:59 amJoseph Riippi—
Would have liked to see D’Ambrosio on the list, even if it meant another Iowa.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 11:15 amComment2000—
He’s not under 40. In fact, he’s not under 50.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 12:45 pmJ.D.—
Oops… I figured that was bound to happen in some way. We had a dinner party and forgot to submit to the contest before the deadline, so we’ll be bummed if seven correct would have won a prize.
June 3rd, 2010 / 6:28 pmJoseph Riippi—
Yeah, just saw that. Surprised me.
June 3rd, 2010 / 8:19 pmjesusangelgarcia—
Ditto Miranda July. She’s got a saucy voice.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 10:30 pmJibba Jabba—
You can hear her saucy voice on her audio book! Recommended.
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So much for paying one’s dues.
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my list:
1) me
2) me
3) me
4) me
5) me
6) me
7) me
8) me
9) me
10) me
11) me
12) me
13) me
14) me
15) me
16) me
17) me
18) me
19) me
20) me
damn. and i spent so much time perfecting all this cloning technology. now what i am supposed to do with it?
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June 3rd, 2010 / 8:37 amdemi-puppet—
You could have each one write in a different genre!
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June 3rd, 2010 / 8:59 amzusya—
too late. they’ve all already been let loose into the wild. though i saw one writing a letter of congratulations to Foer so, sadly, i had to put the poor fella down.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 9:06 amSchulyer Prinz—
read ‘the literary conference’ yet?
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June 3rd, 2010 / 9:28 amzusya17—
not like these people have. sounds good though.
June 3rd, 2010 / 10:51 ammimi—
zooooooosie!
you made me laugh!!!!!
and i’ve heard of all twenty!!!!!!!
i feel smart
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June 3rd, 2010 / 11:34 amzusya17—
good to know i’m not the only one not treating these things with a dire seriousness.
i wish i could say i feel smarted that i’ve only heard of 6, let alone read just a handful.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 1:51 pmMichael Pemulis—
1. Dylan
2. Dylan
3. Dylan
4. Dylan
5. Dylan
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June 3rd, 2010 / 6:38 pmmarshall—
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9lg6HqJeY0
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June 5th, 2010 / 10:23 pmzusya—
rrrrerp! i’m taking the keys to the studio.
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Am I the only one who would rather drink a pint of someone else’s shit, on the hour, every hour, for the next 70 years than read another sentence by that dull asshole Foer?
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[...] out some vigorous discussion at HTMLGIANT. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)The New Yorker Stands Tall5 things to think [...]
I really wish they would have done poets and dramatists, too.
Then again maybe I don’t, judging by what they did here.
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Some more interesting information about this list . . .
16 of the 20 writers on the New Yorker list have a degree from an IVY LEAGUE school—either for undergrad or grad school (or both!)
IVY LEAGUE CONNECTIONS
Nell Freudenberger (Harvard)
Z Z Packer (Yale)
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (Brown)
Jonathan Safran Foer (Princeton)
Daniel Alarcón (Columbia)
Philipp Meyer (Cornell)
Rivka Galchen (Princeton and Columbia)
Chris Adrian (Harvard)
Dinaw Mengestu (Columbia)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Yale and Princeton)
Karen Russell (Columbia)
C. E. Morgan (Harvard)
Wells Tower (Columbia)
Téa Obreht (Cornell)
David Bezmozgis (Cornell)
Gary Shteyngart (Currently teaches at Columbia and Princeton)
“NO” IVY LEAGUE CONNECTION
Nicole Krauss (But attended Stanford and Oxford)
Yiyun Li
Salvatore Scibona
Joshua Ferris
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June 3rd, 2010 / 8:21 pmjesusangelgarcia—
Isn’t that b/c you can’t learn to write creatively or well w/out an Ivy-league pedigree? I thought I read that somewhere… in the New Yorker, perhaps?
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Why are these comments so angry? I like, at least to some extent, eight of these writers (which I think is a LOT for any of these kinds of lists), don’t know only three, and dislike only three. I’m surprised Maile Meloy got left off.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 12:02 pmjoseph—
general discontent
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June 3rd, 2010 / 12:07 pmjoseph—
and “Téa Obreht”’s presence on this list is probably just-cause for anger being directed at the entire list in general.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 12:32 pmComment2000—
Well, this thread is just what a silly 20/40 list is designed to provoke: criticism and discussion but mostly disgust, envy, anger – from those who wished in their wildest writer fantasies that they too were among the anointed venti.
June 3rd, 2010 / 12:46 pmBrendan Connell—
I don’t see much envy in the comments here. Disgust is understandable however, especially for Téa: a Barbie-looking person with 2 short stories to her name. She might be a great writer, but unless one of those short stories is as good as Kafka or Gogol, there is something obscene about it.
Pretty much underlines the point: youth and sex are what is important in today’s society.
June 3rd, 2010 / 3:15 pmzzzzzipp—
this much bitterness over something that can’t be controlled and means nothing to the individual === PROBABLY MOTIVATED BY SOMETHING OTHER THAN DISGUZZZZT
IN ZZZZIPPP’S OPINION—OH MY GOODNESS THERE’S A RAINSTORM OUTSIDE—I HADN’T PLANNED ON THIS–!!! IF YOU DON’T HAVE A TOP AGENT OR SOMETHING PROBABLY NOT WORTH—IS THAT LIGHTNING???
NO!!!! TIN DOG!!!!!!!
June 3rd, 2010 / 3:26 pmSalvatore Pane—
What does her appearance have to do with anything? Are we still throwing around that sexist ’she made it on the list because she looks like Barbie’ argument? Having two story pubs to her name is a valid argument, but it’s highly possible they’re basing her inclusion on her novel manuscript.
June 3rd, 2010 / 3:28 pmstephen—
heyyo zzzzipp, when u gonna update yr tumblr??
June 3rd, 2010 / 3:32 pmComment2000—
I had ZZZZIPPP on my list until I saw ZZZZIPPP using lower case in the above comment. ZZZZIPPP is no longer on my list.
June 3rd, 2010 / 5:28 pmBrendan Connell—
If they are basing it on an unpublished novel then that is even more absurd. And there is nothing sexist about saying she looks like Barbie.
Now if I said that she probably slept with the judges….
June 3rd, 2010 / 7:22 pmZZZZZIPP—
COMMENT2000 HOW CAN YOU KNOW HOW OLD A PHOTON IS
June 4th, 2010 / 10:21 amComment2000—
I try to keep photons and art separate but I simply cannot.
June 4th, 2010 / 11:07 amjoseph—
Yeah, I don’t get the “Barbie-Looking” thing. She doesn’t, and if she did, it would make 0 difference to me and probably should to you too. In fact, I’d be impressed with a badass writer who looked like barbie rather than a badass writer.
the NYer is disgusting, not her. they just creamed their pants/panties (if there are any females on the editing board, I don’t know) when they saw a 24 year old cornell grad with a manuscript about family and war or whatever with an accent mark in her ambiguously ethnic pen-name.
June 8th, 2010 / 1:14 amzusya17—
@ZZZIIIPPPity-doo-dah “NO!!!! TIN DOG!!!!!!!” had me laughing for like 10 minutes. damn/bless you.
June 3rd, 2010 / 3:44 pmComment2000—
My guess is they wanted someone very young to be on the list, and they chose her. I’m not saying she deserves it or she doesn’t. But I doubt she’s there based solely on those two stories and a manuscript. People on lists like this one make it for numerous reasons – in the case of the NYorker 20/40, reasons that often have nothing to do with their writing. They might all be good writers or promising writers but these are not the only reasons why they made it. Someone (or several people) worked hard to get her on the 20/40. And it worked. But this is true of everyone on the list.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 3:58 pmd—
Maybe Obreht’s novel is really really good. I sure hope so, for her sake.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 4:13 pmComment2000—
Could be.
I’m suffocating under all this cynicism and snark.
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I’m surprised at how little anger and envy this list has generated. Most people just seem bored. This is not an encouraging sign
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Envy in a too-cool-for-this voice.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 2:27 pmBrendan Connell—
Why would anyone be envious of these folks? Criticising something and being envious are not the same thing.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 2:53 pmComment2000—
I never said they were.
Being named a New Yorker Best 20 Under 40 Writer is not too shabby. This blog asked readers to guess beforehand which writers might get to wear the laurel; there have been 110+ comments here and counting….rightly or wrongly, The New Yorker’s imprimatur is something a lot of writers want.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 3:36 pmJibba Jabba—
Writers want to sell books?
June 3rd, 2010 / 5:24 pmBrendan Connell—
Commenting and wanting are not the same thing. Selling books is always nice, but aside from that it is pretty worthless. Excellency over time is what counts. Too much praise too young is more likely to harm these writers than help them.
These are the guys and gals who’ll probably be busted shoplifting nasal inhalers when they are in their 50’s.
June 4th, 2010 / 10:18 amComment2000—
I realize commenting and wanting are not the same thing. Thanks.
Implicit in the strong interest expressed in this useless list of Writers Born After 1970 is a desire to be on that list by the writers who read this site and who read the New Yorker. If you disagree, fine. I just can’t imagine there are very many people here who write and who are under 40 saying, No thanks, I don’t want to be on that bloody list.
I know, I know: a TRUE artist…etc. etc. etc.
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re: looks like Barbie: no, she doesn’t. She looks like a horror-show. Now, Rikva is a cool glass of water.
I’m friends with Willing Davis (one of the Fiction editors at the NYer) and I can say that only one name on the list genuinely surprised me.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 5:34 pmBrendan Connell—
Which name?
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June 3rd, 2010 / 8:35 pmFact-checker on the 20th floor—
“Willing Davis” is your friend?
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June 4th, 2010 / 11:50 amSchulyer Prinz—
Fact checker: you got me, I mistyped a last name. Put me on a boat to Guantanamo.
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June 4th, 2010 / 12:20 pmFact-checker on the 20th floor—
What can I say? Facts are facts. Just seems a little fishy that a “friend” wouldn’t get somebody’s last name right.
As a former colleague of Mr. Davidson’s, I found a handful of names surprising: Philipp Meyer, C. E. Morgan, and Salvatore Scibona.
Can someone tell me what is so bad about having “connections”? So JCO was your thesis advisor, and she thought your stuff was good enough to be published, and so she passed on a good for for you. . . and? I don’t think Foer is very good, but his stuff isn’t unpublishable.
What should he have done?—been like “NO Miss JCO, DO NOT help me out with my career! That would be having. . . CONNECTIONS! If -I- get published, I want it to be because some overworked and overcaffeinated intern with 0 prior publishing experience thought my blind submission was good enough to pass on to his superiors!”
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June 3rd, 2010 / 8:23 pmdemi-puppet—
good word for you*
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June 3rd, 2010 / 9:25 pmBrendan Connell—
Nothing wrong with Foer using whatever connections he has I suppose. The problem I have is more with the NYer than with the writers they named. The problem with the youth card is it only works while you are young. 20 years from now no one will know who Foer and Tea are I’d imagine. Then there will be some new list of hot young writers. It is not like any of these folks are Goethe or something who had people committing suicide after reading Werther.
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June 4th, 2010 / 8:45 amd—
That was not the case with the last list they made. A good chunk of the last list went on to write novels that sold very well, and a good chunk of the last list are still fairly ‘big’ writers (for literary fiction).
June 3rd, 2010 / 8:36 pmJibba Jabba—
People were equally annoyed that much of the initial Foer buzz was created by family friend Dale Peck, who called his book one of the best first novels ever. This is the same Peck who whowrote a whole whiny book about how Foer-style antics are ruining American literature.
Just a giant shell game with that kid.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 9:42 pmdemi-puppet—
Dale Peck is a puppet designed to look like a person. One of my profs here once knew him, and told a few stories about him, so I looked up and read a bunch of his stuff. I seriously don’t understand how one person becomes that unhinged while still having that base-level quotidian sanity about them. Dan Schneider is another guy kind of like him: writers whose immense ego and rage prevents them from really ever even presenting a coherent argument.
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June 3rd, 2010 / 9:57 pmJibba Jabba—
Ha. Dan Schneider the cosmoetica guy? He actually hosts a really good MFA article by Brooks Haxton on that site.
I actually kind of respect The Pecks/ Schneiders of the world. We need more critics with the balls to have an opinion. I do, however, feel equally sad for them. They’re just missing out on so many literary pleasures…
June 3rd, 2010 / 10:12 pmRyan Call—
the schneiderverse of schneider verse!
June 4th, 2010 / 1:25 amdemi-puppet—
I too like it when critics have the balls to forcefully state an opinion. (I wish we had a modern-day Emerson—dude was so brilliant, and also so brilliantly ruthless.) But to call either Peck or Schneider “critics” is pretty generous, I think.
June 4th, 2010 / 10:09 amComment2000—
This pretty much sums up Peck, particularly the last line: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/18/books/review/18LEONARD.html
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June 4th, 2010 / 3:37 pmdemi-puppet—
I can’t read it!
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June 4th, 2010 / 3:57 pmComment2000—
Try again. It didn’t work for me just now but I tried again and was able to pull up the page. The article fyi is: ‘Hatchet Jobs’: Smash-Mouth Criticism, By John Leonard, NY Times, July 18, 2004.
June 4th, 2010 / 10:19 amComment2000—
Nothing wrong with connections.
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2 authors under 30
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Have any of these writers dined at In-N-Out? Or eaten a good burger in the last year or two? That’s the real story.
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June 4th, 2010 / 9:22 amDan Wickett—
Well, we know one of them hasn’t don’t we?
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June 4th, 2010 / 10:20 amComment2000—
Maybe he has. Now THAT would be a real story.
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June 4th, 2010 / 12:12 pmComment2000—
He could then write a sequel to his most recent book, using the same title, but writing from a carnivore’s perspective.
June 9th, 2010 / 5:02 pmComment2000—
The NY Post gossip page brings it:
At a book festival in London, Brooklynite and vegetarian Jonathan Safran Foer was discussing, with the zeal of a convert, his book, “Eating Animals,” while sharing the stage with British author Hephzibah Anderson, author of “Chastened.” Anderson promptly reminisced fondly about sharing American-size bacon cheeseburgers with Foer only a few short years ago. How did Foer look in reaction to this? “Sheepish,” said our spy.
http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/burger_shame_b51MeaQYHrYKuq8QAgi6PJ#ixzz0qOLQziLR
[...] picks for the top 20 writers under 40 ruffles the feathers of lesser-celebrated writers over at HTMLGIANT. The breakdown of the writers in the list in terms of MFA programs is particularly interesting. Six [...]
[...] 20 Under 40? I bet you have. You might be interested in seeing where many of these folks got their MFAs. Lesson: most of us have been doing it [...]
The best writers now living in USA under 40:
1. Mark Leidner
2. Andre Wilkensen
3. Meghan Lamb
4. MZA
5. L.A. Martinson
6. Mike Kitchell
7. C.W. Kelly
The rest I haven’t read yet (or haven’t read enough of to make a call)
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July 17th, 2010 / 8:24 pmmarshall—
The RZA, the GZA, the MZA?
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Tea Obreht’s story is in the New Yorker about to come out.
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July 26th, 2010 / 2:30 pmd—
(It’s pretty good.)
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