Idra Novey is an American novelist, poet, and translator. She translates from Portuguese, Spanish, and Persian and now lives in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York.

Career

Novey is a novelist, poet, and translator. She is the author of the novels ''Take What You Need'' (2023), a ''New York Times'' Notable Book, ''Ways to Disappear'' (2016) and ''Those Who Knew'' (2018), which received the 2017 Sami Rohr Prize, the 2016 Brooklyn Eagles Prize, and was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize for First Fiction. ''Those Who Knew'' was also a finalist for the 2019 Clark Fiction Prize, a ''New York Times'' Editors' Choice, and a Best Book of the Year with over a dozen media outlets, including ''NPR'', ''Esquire'', ''BBC'', ''Kirkus Review'', and ''O Magazine''. Her poetry collections include ''Exit, Civilian'' (2011), selected for the 2011 National Poetry Series, ''The Next Country'' (2008), a finalist for the 2008 Foreword Book of the Year Award, and ''Clarice: The Visitor'', a collaboration with the artist Erica Baum. Her fiction and poetry have been translated into a dozen languages and she's written for ''The New York Times'', ''The Los Angeles Times'', ''New York Magazine'', and ''The Paris Review''. She is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, ''Poets & Writers'' Magazine, the PEN Translation Fund, the Poetry Foundation, and The Pushcart Prize. Her works as a translator include Clarice Lispector's novel ''The Passion According to G.H.'' and a co-translation with Ahmad Nadalizadeh of Iranian poet , ''Lean Against This Late Hour'', a finalist for the PEN America Poetry in Translation Prize in 2021. She teaches fiction in the MFA Program at NYU and at Princeton University. She is the most recent translator of ''The Passion According to G.H.'' by Clarice Lispector, ''On Elegance While Sleeping'' by Viscount Lascano Tegui, ''Birds for a Demolition'' by Manoel de Barros, and ''The Clean Shirt of It'' by Paulo Henriques Britto. With Ahmad Nadalizadeh, she has co-translated from

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

a collection of Iranian poet Garous Abdolmalekian, entitled ''Lean Against This Late Hour'' (2020). Her fiction and poetry have been translated into ten languages, and she has received awards from

Poets & Writers Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organizations in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The organization publishes a bi-monthly magazine called ''Poets & Writers Magazine'' ...

'','' the

Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is a United States literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthrop ...

, the Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize, and the

National Endowment of the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

Personal life

Idra grew up in

Johnstown, Pennsylvania Johnstown is the largest city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located east of Pittsburgh, it is the principal city of the Metropolitan statistical area ...

, one of four siblings. She graduated from

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

, and from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

Published works

Novels

* ''Ways to Disappear'' (Little, Brown & Company, 2016) * ''Those Who Knew'' (Viking Books, 2018) * ''Take What You Need'' (Viking Books, 2023)

Full-length poetry collections

* ''The Next Country'' Alice James Books, 2008. * * ''Soon and Wholly'', Wesleyan University Press, September 2024

Chapbooks and cahiers

* ''The Next Country'' (

Poetry Society of America Poetry (from the Greek word '' poiesis'', "making") is a form of literary art that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, literal or surface-level meanings. Any partic ...

, 2005) * ''Clarice: The Visitor'', with images by Erica Baum (Sylph Editions, 2014)

Translations

* ''Dark Period'', by Garous Abdolmalekian in
The New York Times Magazine
', co-translated with Ahmad Nadalizadeh. * ''Oh!'' by Luis Muñoz fo
Poem-a-Day
co-translated with Garth Greenwell. * ''The Clean Shirt of It'', by Paulo Henriques Britto BOA Editions, Ltd., 2007. * ''On Elegance While Sleeping'', by Emilio Lascano Tegui (Dalkey Archive, 2010. * ''Birds for a Demolition'', by

Manoel de Barros Manoel Wenceslau Leite de Barros (December 19, 1916 – November 13, 2014) was a Brazilian poet. He won many awards for his work, including twice the Prêmio Jabuti (the "Tortoise Prize"), the most important literary award in Brazil. Barros was b ...

Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2010. * ''The Passion According to G.H.'', by

Clarice Lispector Clarice Lispector (, born Chaya Pinkhasivna Lispector (; ) December 10, 1920December 9, 1977) was a Ukrainian-born Brazilian novelist and short story writer. Her distinctive and innovative works delve into diverse narrative forms, weaving them ...

New Directions, 2012. * ''Lean Against This Late Hour'', by Garous Abdolmalekian, co-translated with Ahmad Nadalizadeh, Penguin Press, 2020.

Short stories

* "The Man from the Ad" (''

Guernica Guernica (, ), officially Gernika () in Basque, is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the municipality of Gernika-Lumo ...

'', 2011) * "The Specialist" (''

StoryQuarterly ''StoryQuarterly'' is an American literary journal based at Rutgers University–Camden in Camden, New Jersey. It was founded in 1975 by Tom Bracken, F.R. Katz, Pamela Painter and Thalia Selz. Works originally published in ''StoryQuarterly'' ha ...

,'' 2015)
Under the Lid"
(''

The American Scholar "The American Scholar" was a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson on August 31, 1837, to Phi Beta Kappa society of Harvard College at the First Parish in Cambridge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was invited to speak in recognition of his groundb ...

'', 2016)
Husband and Wife During the Nightly News
(''

The Yale Review ''The Yale Review'' is the oldest literary journal in the United States. It is published by Johns Hopkins University Press. It was founded in 1819 as ''The Christian Spectator'' to support Evangelicalism. Over time it began to publish more on ...

'', Winter 2019)
Harmony, Interrupted
(''The Chronicles of Now'', 2020)
The Glacier
(''

'', Summer 2021, winner of a 2022 Pushcart Prize)
"Conversations with My Father"
(''

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 make ...

'', 2023)

Selected poems

"The Visitor"
(''Poetry Foundation'', 2012)
"La Prima Victoria"
(''Poetry Foundation'', 2012)
"On Returning to My Hometown in 2035"
(''

'', 2014)
"The Duck Shit at Clarion Creek"
(''Poetry Foundation'', 2014)
"House-Sitting With Approaching Fire"
(''Guernica'', 2014)
"Still Life With Invisible Canoe"
( ''Academy of American Poet''s, 2015) *
Nearly
(Poets.org, 2019) *
Night Sky with Blue Silo and a Bonfire
(''A Public Space'', 2022)
"That's How Far I'd Drive for It"
(''Poetry Foundation'', 2023)

Nonfiction

(''The New York Times'', 2018)
"New Narratives and Discards"
(Orion Magazine, March 2023)
"Monstrous Hybrids and the Conjuring of Legacy"
(Yale Review, 2023)

Honors and Awards

* 2005 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Series Fellowship for ''The Next Country'' * 2007 Kinereth Gensler Award for ''The Next Country'' * 2007 PEN Translation Fund Grant from

PEN American Center PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922, and headquartered in New York City, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise awareness for the protection of free expression in the United States and worldwide thr ...

for ''The Clean Shirt of It'' * 2009 NEA Literature Fellowship for Translation * 2011

Best Translated Book Award The Best Translated Book Award was an American literary award that recognized the previous year's best original translation into English, one book of poetry and one of fiction. It was inaugurated in 2008 and was conferred by Three Percent, the onl ...

(shortlisted) for ''On Elegance While Sleeping'' * 2011

National Poetry Series The National Poetry Series is an American literary awards program. Every year since 1979, the National Poetry Series has sponsored the publication of five books of poetry. Manuscripts are solicited through an annual open competition, judged and c ...

for ''Exit, Civilian'' * 2016

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

(finalist) for ''Ways to Disappear'' * 2016

Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award The Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award is an annual literary prize presented by Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. The company ...

for ''Ways to Disappear'' * 2016 Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize for ''Ways to Disappear'' * 2017 Sami Rohr Prize for ''Ways to Disappear'' * 2022

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

for "The Glacier", ''Yale Review''

References

External links.

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Novey, Idra 21st-century American poets Living people Poets from New York (state) National Endowment for the Arts Fellows American women poets Princeton University faculty New York University faculty Columbia University faculty 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American translators Translators from Persian Translators from Portuguese Translators of Clarice Lispector Translators from Spanish Chapbook writers Barnard College alumni Columbia University alumni Date of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) American women academics 21st-century pseudonymous writers Pseudonymous women writers