Erica Wagner is an American author and critic, living in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England. She is former literary editor of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''.

Biography

Erica Wagner was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1967. She grew up on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

and went to the

Brearley School The Brearley School is an all-girls private school in New York City, located on the Upper East Side neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan. The school is divided into lower (kindergarten – grade 4), middle (grades 5–8) and upper (grades 9 ...

. As a child she had epilepsy. She moved to Britain in the 1980s to continue her education, first at

St Paul's Girls' School St Paul's Girls' School is an independent day school for girls, aged 11 to 18, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England. History St Paul's Girls' School was founded by the Worshipful Company of Mercers in 1904, using part o ...

, then at

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus"), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th century through to the early 19th century ...

(BA), and finally at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

(MA), where she was taught by

Malcolm Bradbury Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury, (7 September 1932 – 27 November 2000) was an English author and academic. Life Bradbury was born in Sheffield, the son of a railwayman. His family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 with ...

and

Rose Tremain Dame Rose Tremain (born 2 August 1943) is an English novelist, short story writer, and former Chancellor of the University of East Anglia. Life Rose Tremain was born Rosemary Jane Thomson on 2 August 1943 in London to Viola Mabel Thomson and ...

. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University of East Anglia and is Goldsmiths Distinguished Writers' Centre Fellow, an appointment made in January 2022. She is the author of several books, including a collection of short stories, ''Gravity'', ''Ariel's Gift:

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, ''The ...

, and the Story of Birthday Letters'', and the novel ''Seizure''. Her latest book is a biography of

Washington Roebling Washington Augustus Roebling (May 26, 1837 – July 21, 1926) was an American civil engineer who supervised the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, designed by his father John A. Roebling. He served in the Union Army during the American Civ ...

, the engineer who constructed the

Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...

. Wagner was literary editor of ''

'' between 1996 and June 2013. She reviews for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and many other publications, including the New Statesman (for which she is a contributing writer), the Economist, the Observer, the Financial Times. Wagner was selected to be one of the judges for the

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. ...

in both 2002 and 2014. She has judged many other literary prizes as well. She is Lead Editorial Innovator a
Creatd, Inc
Wagner was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

in 2023. She lives in London with her husband, the writer Francis Gilbert, author of '' I'm a Teacher, Get Me Out of Here'', ''Teacher on the Run'' and ''Yob Nation''. They have a son, Theo.

Bibliography

* ''Gravity'' (Granta, 1997) * ''Ariel's Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and the Story of Birthday Letters'' (Faber & Faber/W. W. Norton, 2000) * ''Seizure'' (Faber & Faber, W. W. Norton, 2007) * ''First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner'' (Unbound, 2016) * ''Chief Engineer: The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge'' (Bloomsbury, 2017)(Bloomsbury) , * ''Mary and Mr Eliot: A Sort of Love Story'' (Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, forthcoming 2022/2033)

References

1967 births Living people Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of East Anglia American expatriates in England Brearley School alumni New Statesman people People educated at St Paul's Girls' School People with epilepsy American writers with disabilities The Times people Writers from New York City {{UK-writer-stub Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature