Ottessa Charlotte Moshfegh (; born May 20, 1981) is an American author and novelist. Her

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 p ...

, ''

Eileen Eileen ( or ) is an Irish feminine given name anglicised from Eibhlín and may refer to: People Artists *Eileen Agar (1899–1991), British Surrealist painter and photographer *Eileen Fisher (born 1950), clothing retailer and designer *Eileen ...

'' (2015), won the

Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award The PEN/Hemingway Award is awarded annually to a full-length novel or book of short stories by an American author who has not previously published a full-length book of fiction. The award is named after Ernest Hemingway and funded by the Hemingway ...

, was shortlisted for the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

, and was a fiction finalist for the

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".My Year of Rest and Relaxation ''My Year of Rest and Relaxation'' is a 2018 novel by American author Ottessa Moshfegh. Moshfegh's second novel, it is set in New York City in 2000 and 2001 and follows an unnamed protagonist as she gradually escalates her use of prescription medi ...

'', '' Death in Her Hands'', and '' Lapvona''.

Early life and education

Moshfegh was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1981. Her mother was born in

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

and her father, who is Jewish, was born in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. Her parents were both musicians and taught at the

New England Conservatory of Music The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a Private college, private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music Music school, conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The ...

. As a child, Moshfegh learned to play piano and clarinet. She attended the

Commonwealth School Commonwealth School is a private high school of about 155 students and 35 faculty members located in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Hist ...

in Boston and received her BA in English from

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

in 2002. She completed an MFA in Literary Arts from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in 2011. She was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in fiction at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

from 2013-2015.

Career

After college, Moshfegh moved to China, where she taught English and worked in a punk bar. In her mid-twenties, Moshfegh moved to New York City. She worked for

Overlook Press The Overlook Press is an American publishing house based in New York, New York, that considers itself "a home for distinguished books that had been 'overlooked' by larger houses". History and operations It was formed in 1971 by Peter Mayer, who ...

, and then as an assistant for

Jean Stein Jean Babette Stein (February 9, 1934 – April 30, 2017) was an American author and editor. Early life Stein was born to a Jewish family in Chicago. Her father was Jules C. Stein (1896–1981), co-founder of the Music Corporation of America (MCA ...

. After contracting

cat-scratch fever Cat-scratch disease (CSD) or felinosis is an infectious disease that most often results from a scratch or bite of a cat. Symptoms typically include a non-painful bump or blister at the site of injury and painful and swollen lymph nodes. People m ...

, she left the city and earned an MFA from

. During those years, she supported herself by selling vintage clothing which she has described as mostly "tea dresses."

Works

In 2014, Fence Books published Moshfegh's novella ''McGlue''. ''McGlue'' was the first recipient of the Fence Modern Prize in Prose. In August 2015, Penguin Press published Moshfegh's novel ''

''. It received positive reviews. The book was shortlisted for the

2016 Man Booker Prize The 2016 Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded at a ceremony on 25 October 2016. The Man Booker dozen of 13 books was announced on 27 July, narrowed down to a shortlist of six titles on 13 September. Paul Beatty was awarded the 2016 Booker Prize fo ...

. In the book, Eileen, the protagonist and narrator, describes a series of events that occurred years ago, when she was young and living in a Massachusetts town that she calls "X-ville." At the beginning of the novel, she is working as a secretary at a local juvenile prison while living with and caring for her abusive father, a retired police officer with alcoholism and paranoia. As the story continues, we learn more about a dramatic situation that causes her to leave her life in X-ville. ''

Homesick for Another World ''Homesick for Another World'' is a collection of fourteen short stories by Ottessa Moshfegh. Contents Reception The review aggregator website Book Marks reported that 41% of critics gave the book a "rave" review, whilst the other 59% of the cr ...

'', a collection of short stories, was published in January 2017. On July 10, 2018, Penguin Press published Moshfegh's second novel, ''

My Year of Rest and Relaxation ''My Year of Rest and Relaxation'' is a 2018 novel by American author Ottessa Moshfegh. Moshfegh's second novel, it is set in New York City in 2000 and 2001 and follows an unnamed protagonist as she gradually escalates her use of prescription medi ...

''. The book describes a young art history graduate living in New York City over 15 months from mid-June 2000. Recently graduated from college and ambivalently mourning the recent deaths of her parents, she quits her job as a gallerist and undertakes to sleep for a year with the assistance of sleeping pills and other medications prescribed by a disreputable psychiatrist. Also in 2018, Moshfegh wrote a piece for

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

in which she describes an experience she had with a much older male writer when she was 17 years old. Moshfegh is a frequent contributor to the ''

Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

'' and has published six stories in the journal since 2012. In August 2020, ''Vintage'' published Moshfegh's third novel, '' Death in Her Hands''. Moshfegh has called the book "a loneliness story." In June 2022, Penguin Press published Moshfegh's fourth novel, ''Lapvona'', which follows Marek, the abused son of the town shepherd, along with other characters from the fictional, medieval

fiefdom A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form o ...

of Lapvona. Moshfegh and her husband, Luke Goebel, were awarded a shared "written by" credit (with Elizabeth Sanders) for their work on the

A24 A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. It is based in New York City. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. Pr ...

film ''

Causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet Tra ...

''. The film premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

in September 2022.

Personal life

Moshfegh is married to the writer Luke B. Goebel, whom she met during an interview. They live in California.

Awards and honors

* 2013–15 Wallace

Stegner Fellowship The Stegner Fellowship program is a two-year creative writing fellowship at Stanford University. The award is named after American Wallace Stegner (1909–1993), a historian, novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and Stanford faculty mem ...

at Stanford University * 2013

Plimpton Prize The Plimpton Prize is an annual award of $10,000 given by ''The Paris Review'' to a previously unpublished or emerging author who has written a work of fiction that was recently published in its publication. The award was named in honor of longtim ...

for Fiction from ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

'' for her story "Bettering Myself" * 2014 Fence Modern Prize in Prose (judged by

Rivka Galchen Rivka Galchen (born April 19, 1976) is a Canadian-American writer. Her first novel, ''Atmospheric Disturbances'', was published in 2008 and was awarded the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. She is the author of five books and a cont ...

), inaugural winner for ''McGlue'' * 2014

Believer Book Award Believer Book Award is an American literary award presented yearly by '' The Believer'' magazine to novels and story collections, nonfiction books or essay collections, poetry collections, and, beginning in 2021 (awarding to books published in 2020) ...

winner for ''McGlue'' * 2016 MacDowell Colony Fellowship * 2016

for ''Eileen'' * 2016

Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

(shortlist) for ''Eileen'' * 2018

The Story Prize The Story Prize is an annual book award established in 2004 that honors the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction with a $20,000 cash award. Each of two runners-up receives $5,000. Eligible books must be written in English and first p ...

finalist for ''

Works

Novels

*''

'' (2015) *''

'' (2018) *'' Death in Her Hands'' (2020) *'' Lapvona'' (2022)

Collections

*''

'' (2017)

Novellas

*''

McGlue ''McGlue'' is a 2014 novella by Ottessa Moshfegh. It was Moshfegh's debut. Originally published by Fence Books, it was reissued by Penguin Books in 2019. Development In an interview with ''The White Review'', Moshfegh talked about her experienc ...

'' (2014) *
My New Novel
' (2021)

Short stories

*"Medicine", ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...

'', December 1, 2007 *"Disgust" (alternately titled "Mr Wu"), ''

'', No. 202, Fall 2012 *"Bettering Myself", ''The Paris Review'', No. 204 Spring 2013 *"Malibu", ''Vice'', July 3, 2013 *"The Weirdos", ''The Paris Review'', No. 206, Fall 2013 *"A Dark and Winding Road", ''The Paris Review'', No. 207, Winter 2013 *"No Place for Good People", ''The Paris Review'', No. 209, Summer 2014 *"Slumming", ''The Paris Review'', No. 211, Winter 2014 *"Nothing Ever Happens Here", ''

'', Issue 131, Spring 2015 *"The Surrogate", ''Vice'', June 5, 2015 *"Dancing in the Moonlight", ''The Paris Review'', No. 214 Fall 2015 *"The Beach Boy", ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', January 4, 2016 * "The Locked Room", ''

The Baffler ''The Baffler'' is an American magazine of cultural, political, and business analysis. Established in 1988 by editors Thomas Frank and Keith White, it was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, until 2010, when it moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. ...

'', Spring 2016 * "An Honest Woman", ''The New Yorker'', October 24, 2016 *"Love Stories", ''Vice'', December 5, 2016 *"Brom", ''Granta'', Issue 139, 2017 *"The Pornographers", ''Vice'', March 26, 2017 *"I Was a Public Schooler", ''The Paris Review'', No. 233, Summer 2020 *"The Imitations", '' Apartamento'', No. 27, May 17, 2021

Essays

*"Anything to Make You Happy", ''

Lucky Peach Momofuku is a culinary brand established by chef David Chang in 2004 with the opening of Momofuku Noodle Bar. It includes restaurants in New York City, Sydney, Toronto, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles (Noodle Bar, Ssäm Bar, Ko, Má Pêche (defunct) ...

'', May 2015 *"How to Shit", '' The Masters Review'', October 2015 *"Coyotes, the Ultimate American Tricksters", ''

'', July 2016

References

External links

*
Believer interviewHazlitt interviewGawker interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moshfegh, Ottessa Living people American women novelists 21st-century American novelists Writers from Boston American people of Croatian descent 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American short story writers 1981 births American people of Iranian-Jewish descent Novelists from Massachusetts Jewish American short story writers Jewish American novelists American writers of Iranian descent Stegner Fellows Barnard College alumni Brown University alumni 21st-century American Jews