Meghan O'Rourke (born 1976 in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

) is an American nonfiction writer,

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

and critic.

Background and education

O'Rourke was born January 26, 1976, in Brooklyn, New York. The eldest of three children born to Paul and Barbara O’Rourke, she had two younger brothers. Her mother was a longtime teacher and administrator at

Saint Ann's In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ort ...

, an elite independent school in Brooklyn, and later headmaster of the Pierrepoint School in Westport, Connecticut. Her father, a classicist and Egyptologist, also taught at Saint Ann's and Pierrepont. O'Rourke attended St. Ann's through high school. She earned a bachelor's of arts degree in English language and literature from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

in 1997 and a master of fine arts degree in poetry from

Warren Wilson College Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a private liberal arts college in Swannanoa, North Carolina. It is known for its curriculum that combines academics, work, and service as every student must complete a requisite course of study, work an on-campus ...

in 2005.

Career

Journalism

Immediately after graduating from Yale, O'Rourke began an internship as an

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, or ...

at ''

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 ...

.'' She was promoted to fiction/nonfiction editor in 2000, becoming one of the youngest editors ever at the publication. During this time, she also freelanced as a contributing editor of the literary quarterly ''Grand Street''. In 2002, O'Rourke moved to the online magazine ''Slate'', serving as culture and literary editor until 2009 and as founding editor of DoubleX, a section of ''Slate'' that focused on women’s issues. She also continued to moonlight with other publications; from 2005 to 2010 she was a poetry coeditor of 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, Ph ...

. She is also an occasional contributor to ''

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 ...

.'' O'Rourke has written on a wide range of topics, including

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...

gender bias Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primari ...

in the literary world, the politics of marriage and divorce, and the place of grief and mourning in modern society. She has published poems in literary journals and magazines including ''The New Yorker,

Best American Poetry ''The Best American Poetry'' series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems. Background The series, begun by poet and editor David Lehman in 1988, has a different guest editor every year. Lehman, still the general ...

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

,'' and ''Poetry,'' along with Perrine's Literatures Twelfth Edition. O'Rourke's first book of poems, ''Halflife,'' was published by Norton in 2007. Her book ''The Long Goodbye'', a memoir of grief and mourning written after her mother's death, was published to wide critical acclaim in 2011. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. O'Rourke suffers from an

autoimmune disorder An autoimmune disease is a condition arising from an abnormal immune response to a functioning body part. At least 80 types of autoimmune diseases have been identified, with some evidence suggesting that there may be more than 100 types. Nearly ...

that she has written about for ''The New Yorker''. Her latest book, ''The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness'', was released in March 2022. ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' named it one of the top ten books of 2022, regardless of genre. She has been treated for

Lyme disease Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is a vector-borne disease caused by the '' Borrelia'' bacterium, which is spread by ticks in the genus '' Ixodes''. The most common sign of infection is an expanding red rash, known as erythema ...

. On July 1, 2019, O'Rourke became editor of ''

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 h ...

'', coinciding with the 200th anniversary of its founding.

Awards and fellowships

*2005: Union League and Civic Arts Foundation Award from the

Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is an American 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 philanthropist ...

*2007: Lannan Literary Award *2008: May Sarton Poetry Prize *2014:

Guggenheim Award Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

for General Nonfiction *2017: Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant to complete her book, ''What's Wrong With Me? The Mysteries of Chronic Illness''

Bibliography

Poetry

;Collections * * ''Once: Poems'' (New York: W. W. Norton, 2011). * ''Sun In Days'' (New York: W. W. Norton, 2017). ;List of poems

Memoirs

* ''The Long Goodbye'', memoir (New York: Riverhead, 2011).

Anthologies

* ed. ''A World Out of Reach: Dispatches from Life Under Lockdown'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020)

References

Sources

* ''Contemporary Authors Online''. The Gale Group, 2006.

External links

* Website
Official website
* Excerpt
An excerpt
from ''The Long Goodbye'', in ''The New Yorker''. * Audio
Meghan O'Rourke reads "Spectacular"
from the book ''Halflife'' (vi
poemsoutloud.net

Audio: Meghan O'Rourke reading from ''Halflife'' at the Key West Literary Seminar, 2008. (.mp3 / 15:44)

"Chemotherapy,"
a poem by Meghan O'Rourke published in Guernica Magazine
Meghan O'Rourke on Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orourke, Meghan 1976 births Living people 21st-century American poets Poets from New York (state) Writers from Brooklyn The New Yorker people Yale University alumni Slate (magazine) people American women poets Warren Wilson College alumni 21st-century American women writers Radcliffe fellows American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers