:Meg Wolitzer

{{Infobox writer

|image = File:Meg_wolitzer_2011.jpg

| name = Meg Wolitzer

| caption = Wolitzer at the 2011 Texas Book Festival, Austin

| pseudonym =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1959|05|28}}

| birth_place = New York City, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| occupation = Writer

| nationality = American

| alma_mater = Smith College
Brown University

| period = 1982–present

| genre = Literary fiction

| subject =

| movement =

| notableworks = The Ten-Year Nap, The Uncoupling, The Interestings

| influences =

| influenced =

| signature = Meg Wolitzer signature (cropped).jpg

| spouse = Richard Panek

| website = {{URL|http://megwolitzer.com/}}

}}

Meg Wolitzer (born May 28, 1959) is an American novelist, known for The Wife, The Ten-Year Nap, The Uncoupling, The Interestings, and The Female Persuasion. She is a co-director of the BookEnds writing fellowship program at Stony Brook Southampton.{{Cite web |title=Who We Are {{!}} Southampton Writers Conference |url=https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/writers/bios.php#/our%20team |access-date=2025-04-06 |website=www.stonybrook.edu |language=en}}

Life and career

Wolitzer was born in Brooklyn and raised in Syosset, New York, the daughter of novelist Hilma Wolitzer (née Liebman) and psychologist Morton Wolitzer.{{cite web |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/wolitzer-hilma-1930 |accessdate=29 December 2021|title=Wolitzer, Hilma 1930- |website=www.encyclopedia.com }} She was raised Jewish.{{cite web |url=http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/137367/q-and-a-meg-wolitzer-on-sex-suburbs-and-the-wo/ |title=Q&A: Meg Wolitzer on Sex, Suburbs — and the Workmen's Circle | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120607192230/http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/137367/q-and-a-meg-wolitzer-on-sex-suburbs-and-the-wo/ | archive-date=7 June 2012 | date=April 28, 2011 | website=The Jewish Daily Forward }} Wolitzer studied creative writing at Smith College and graduated from Brown University in 1981.

She wrote her first novel, Sleepwalking, a story of three college girls obsessed with poetry and death, while still an undergraduate; it was published in 1982.{{cite news |title=Writing About Women Who Are Soccer Moms Without Soccer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/books/25wolitzer.html |newspaper=New York Times |date=March 25, 2008 |accessdate=September 4, 2011}} Her following books include Hidden Pictures (1986), This Is Your Life (1988), Surrender, Dorothy (1998), The Wife (2003), The Position (2005), The Ten-Year Nap (2008), The Uncoupling (2011), and The Interestings (2013). Her short story "Tea at the House" was featured in 1998's Best American Short Stories collection. Her novel for younger readers, The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman, was published in 2011.

She also co-authored, with Jesse Green, a book of cryptic crosswords, Nutcrackers: Devilishly Addictive Mind Twisters for the Insatiably Verbivorous (1991), and has written about the relative difficulty women writers face in gaining critical acclaim.{{cite news |title=The Second Shelf |author=Meg Wolitzer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/books/review/on-the-rules-of-literary-fiction-for-men-and-women.html | newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 30, 2012 |accessdate=April 29, 2013}}

She has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, Skidmore College, and, most recently, was a guest artist at Princeton University. Over the past decade she has also taught at both Stony Brook Southampton's MFA in Creative Writing program and the Southampton Writers Conference and the Florence Writers Workshop.{{Cite web |url=http://www.stonybrook.edu/southampton/mfa/cwl/people.html|title=Faculty & Staff | Southampton Arts}} Three films have been based on her work: This Is My Life, scripted and directed by Nora Ephron; the 2006 made-for-television movie Surrender, Dorothy; and the 2017 drama The Wife, starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce.

The Uncoupling was the subject of the first coast-to-coast virtual book club discussion, via Skype.{{cite news |title=New chapter begins for book clubs as author takes discussion online |url=https://edmontonjournal.com/news/chapter+begins+book+clubs+author+takes+discussion+online/5351989/story.html |newspaper=Edmonton Journal |date=September 4, 2011 |accessdate=September 4, 2011}}

As of 2018, Wolitzer resides on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, with her husband, science writer Richard Panek.

Works

=Novels=

Sleepwalking (1982) {{ISBN|9781594633133}}, {{OCLC|862097178}}
Hidden Pictures (1986)
This Is Your Life (1988)
Friends for Life 1994 {{ISBN|9780821750377}}, {{OCLC|32939325}}
Surrender, Dorothy (1998)
The Wife (2003) {{ISBN|9780099478195}}, {{OCLC|908803171}}
The Position (2005)
The Ten-Year Nap (2008) {{ISBN|9781594483547}}, {{OCLC|1003299133}}
The Uncoupling (2011) {{ISBN|9781594485657}}, {{OCLC|1021096351}}
The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman (2011)
The Interestings (2013){{cite magazine|author=Doll, Jen|title=The Author Everyone's Interested In: Meg Wolitzer and 'The Interestings'|magazine=The Atlantic|date=May 9, 2013|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2013/05/book-and-author-everybodys-talking-about-interestings-and-meg-wolitzer/315450/}} {{ISBN|9780099584094}}, {{OCLC|1001585374}}
Belzhar (2014) {{ISBN|9780142426296}}, {{OCLC|904081649}}
The Female Persuasion (2018) {{ISBN|9781594488405}}, {{OCLC|993689357}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/books/meg-wolitzer-the-female-persuasion.html|title=Why Now May (Finally) Be Meg Wolitzer's Moment|last=Lyall|first=Sarah|date=2018-03-23|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-03-26|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/sc-books-female-persuasion-meg-wolitzer-0328-story.html|title=Review: 'The Female Persuasion' by Meg Wolitzer|last=Gentry|first=Amy|work=Chicago Tribune |access-date=2018-03-26|language=en-US}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/profiles/article/75865-meg-wolitzer-s-new-novel-is-right-for-the-metoo-moment.html|title=Meg Wolitzer's New Novel is Right for the #MeToo Moment|work=Publishers Weekly |access-date=2018-03-26|language=en}}
To Night Owl from Dogfish (2019) {{ISBN|9781984815057}}