Audrey Niffenegger (born June 13, 1963) is an American writer, artist, and academic. Her debut novel, '' The Time Traveler's Wife'', published in 2003, was a bestseller.

Biography

Audrey Niffenegger was born in 1963 in

South Haven, Michigan South Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Most of the city is in Van Buren County, Michigan, Van Buren County, although a small portion extends into Allegan County, Michigan, Allegan County. The population was 3,964 at the 2020 United ...

. At the age of two, she and her family moved to

Evanston, Illinois Evanston is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. A suburb of Chicago, Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skok ...

, and she has since spent the majority of her life living in or close to Chicago. Niffenegger started writing books when she was six years old. Niffenegger completed her undergraduate degree at the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

where she worked on becoming a visual artist. After completing her undergraduate degree, she got her M.F.A at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

. From 1994 to 2015, Niffenegger served on the faculty of the Creative Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago, where she co-founded the Columbia College Chicago Center for the Book and Paper Arts. Niffenegger is also the founding member of T3 or Text 3, an artist and writer's group which performs and exhibits in Chicago. She is an alumna and board member of the Ragdale Foundation. She started making books herself by using processes such as intaglio and letterpress. She also wrote many novels which were produced on an offset press. She founded Artists Book House. In 2024, Niffenegger announced that the center's home would be built in the Old Irving Park neighborhood.

Novels

Niffenegger's

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...

, '' The Time Traveler's Wife'', was published in 2003 and was a bestseller. A

film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

was released in 2009. Niffenegger has no intention of watching the movie because she stated that the characters are only truly hers in the book, not in the movie. Niffenegger originally conceptualized ''The Time Traveler's Wife'' as a graphic novel but realized that the time travel would be difficult to capture in visualizations. In March 2009, Niffenegger sold her second novel, a literary ghost story called '' Her Fearful Symmetry'', to Charles Scribner's Sons for an advance of $5 million. The book was released on October 1, 2009 and is set in London's Highgate Cemetery where, during research for the book, Niffenegger acted as a tour guide. Though not as huge a commercial juggernaut as ''The Time Traveler's Wife,'' this book generally garnered more positive critical reviews and clinched Niffenegger's reputation as a leading novelist of ideas and atmosphere. Niffenegger collaborated with Wayne McGregor on a balletic fable, '' Raven Girl'' (2013), performed at the Royal Opera House in London in 2013, 2015. In 2009, she started working on a novel called ''The Chinchilla Girl in Exile''. In 2013, it was announced that there would be a sequel to ''The Time Traveler's Wife'' and in 2022 it was announced that title is ''The Other Husband'' set to be released in 2023.

Visual books

Niffenegger has degrees from the

and

. As an undergraduate student at the Art Institute of Chicago, Niffenegger created her own book arts major combining etching, letterpress arts and bookbinding. Her first project was called ''The Adventuress'', which she self-described as "a novel in pictures". Niffenegger's second novel in pictures was titled ''The Three Incestuous Sisters'' which she created while completing her M.F.A. at Northwestern. These two novels in pictures were subsequently published by Harry N. Abrams. ''The Three Incestuous Sisters'' was published in 2005 and tells the story of three unusual sisters who live in a seaside house; the book has been compared to the work of Edward Gorey. ''The Adventuress'' was released on September 1, 2006. The 2004 short story "The Night Bookmobile" was serialized in 2008 in "Visual Novel" format in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. "The Night Bookmobile" was published on October 1, 2010, by Jonathan Cape. Niffenegger intends "The Night Bookmobile" to be the first installment in a series titled "The Library". She is working on the second installment, called "Moths of the New World", about a stolen book.

Personal life

Niffenegger is married to cartoonist

Eddie Campbell Eddie Campbell (born 10 August 1955) is a British comics artist and cartoonist. He was the illustrator and publisher of '' From Hell'' (written by Alan Moore), and the creator of the semi-autobiographical ''Alec'' stories collected in ''Alec: ...

. Niffenegger and Campbell collaborated on the visual novel ''Bizarre Romance'' to celebrate the Comics Unmasked exhibit at the British Library. Niffenegger describes herself as "somewhere in the spectrum of

agnosticism Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer t ...

and

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the Existence of God, existence of Deity, deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the ...

" and ascribes her disbelief to her

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

background.

Bibliography

Novels

* '' The Time Traveler's Wife'' (2003) * '' Her Fearful Symmetry'' (2009) * '' Raven Girl'' (2013) * '' The Other Husband'' (to be published in 2023)

Short stories

* "Jakob Wywialowski and the Angels" (2004) * "Prudence: The Cautionary Tale of a Picky Eater" in the book ''Poisonous Plants at Table'' (2006)

Comics

* ''The Night Bookmobile'' (2008) * ''Bizarre Romance'' (with

, Abrams, 2018)

Artist's books

Visual books: * ''The Adventuress'' (1985) * ''The Spinster'' (1986) * ''Aberrant Abecedarium'' (1986) * ''The Murderer'' * ''Spring'' (1994) * ''The Three Incestuous Sisters'' (2005)

Non-fiction

* ''Awake in the Dream World: The Art of Audrey Niffenegger'' (2013), with Susan Fisher Sterling and Mark Pascale

Anthologies

* ''Ghostly: A Collection of Ghost Stories'' (Scribner, 2015). . An anthology selected and illustrated by Audrey Niffenegger. She also wrote the introduction.

Books Foreworded by Niffenegger

* ''The Art of Neil Gaiman'' (with Hayley Campbell, Neil Gaiman) * ''Classic Penguin: Cover to Cover'' ( Paul Buckley) * ''Mr. Wrong: Real-Life Stories about the Men We Used to Love'' (Jacquelyn Mitchard, Harriet Brown, et al.)

Adaptations

* '' The Time Traveler's Wife'' (2009), film directed by

Robert Schwentke Robert Schwentke (; born 15 February 1968) is a German film director and screenwriter. He is best known for directing '' Flightplan'' (2005), '' The Time Traveler's Wife'' (2009), '' Red'' (2010), '' The Divergent Series: Insurgent'' (2015), '' T ...

, based on novel '' The Time Traveler's Wife'' * '' The Time Traveler's Wife'' (2022), series directed by David Nutter, based on novel ''The Time Traveler's Wife''

References

External links

*
Interview with Audrey Niffenegger, December 2008

Art gallery representing Audrey Niffenegger *
Interview with Writer Unboxed 3/06
about craft, the process of writing and editing, Time Traveler's Wife, The Three Incestuous Sisters, Her Fearful Symmetry, more.
Feature-length radio interview
on KGNU with Claudia Cragg discussing 'Her Fearful Symmetry'
Audrey Niffenegger Papers
at

Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities. It is located in Chicago, Illinois, and has been free and open to the public since 1887. The Newberry's mission is to foster a deeper understanding of our wo ...

Audrey Niffenegger on Meet The Writers

Monocle 24 Monocle Radio (originally launched as ''Monocle 24'') is a mainly speech-based internet radio station, broadcasting from Monocle's headquarters at Midori House in London, England. On weekdays, the station produces three hours of live, current ...

talking to Georgina Godwin *Two-part interview conducted by Henk de Berg (2019) on Niffenegger's career, "The Time Traveler's Wife" and its sequel, "The Other Husband"
part 1part 2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Niffenegger, Audrey 1963 births Living people 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers American agnostics American former Christians American women novelists American women poets Columbia College Chicago faculty American contemporary artists Evanston Township High School alumni Former Roman Catholics Northwestern University alumni People from South Haven, Michigan American women romantic fiction writers American women science fiction and fantasy writers Writers from Chicago Novelists from Michigan Writers of time travel romance Novelists from Illinois American women academics Inkpot Award winners