Gary Shteyngart ( ; born Igor Semyonovich Shteyngart on July 5, 1972)' is a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

-born American writer. He is the author of five novels (including ''Absurdistan'' and '' Super Sad True Love Story'') and a memoir. Much of his work is satirical.

Early life

Igor Semyonovich Shteyngart () was born in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, and he spent the first seven years of his childhood living in a square dominated by a huge statue of

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

in Leningrad, present-day St. Petersburg—which he alternately calls "St. Leningrad" or "St. Leninsburg". He comes from a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family, with an ethnically Russian maternal grandparent, and describes his family as "typically

". His father worked as an engineer in a LOMO camera factory; his mother was a pianist. When he was five, he wrote a 100-page comic novel. Shteyngart immigrated to the United States in 1979 and was brought up in Queens, New York, with no television in the apartment in which he lived, where English was not the household language. He spoke with a Russian accent until he was around 14. He is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, and

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, where he earned a degree in politics, in 1995, with a senior thesis on the former Soviet republics of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

and

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

Career

After Oberlin, he worked a series of jobs as a writer for non-profit organizations in New York. Shteyngart took a trip to

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

in the early 1990s, and this experience helped spawn his first novel, '' The Russian Debutante's Handbook'', set in the fictitious European city of Prava. In 1999, as part of the application to Hunter College's MFA program he mailed a portion of his first novel to Chang-Rae Lee, the director of the creative writing program at Hunter College. Lee helped Shteyngart get his first book deal. Shteyngart earned an MFA in creative writing at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

of the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

. Shteyngart had a fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin, Germany, for Fall 2007. He has taught writing at Hunter College, and currently teaches writing at

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 ...

Awards

Shteyngart's work has received many awards. '' The Russian Debutante's Handbook'' won the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction, the Book-of-the-Month Club First Fiction Award and the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction. It was named a ''New York Times'' Notable Book and one of the best debuts of the year by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' In 2002, he was named one of the five best new writers by '' Shout NY'' Magazine. '' Absurdistan'' was chosen as one of the ten best books of the year by '' The New York Times Book Review'' and ''Time'' magazine, as well as a book of the year by the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'', ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'' and many other publications. In June 2010, Shteyngart was named as one of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' magazine's "20 under 40" luminary fiction writers. '' Super Sad True Love Story'' won the 2011 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic literature. His memoir ''Little Failure'' was a finalist for the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award (Autobiography).

Work

Shteyngart's novels include '' The Russian Debutante's Handbook'' (2002), and '' Absurdistan'' (2006). '' Super Sad True Love Story'' (2010) was promoted by a film trailer with Paul Giamatti and James Franco. Thirty-five years after he emigrated to the U.S., in January, 2014,

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

published ''Little Failure: A Memoir'', and promoted it by a film trailer with James Franco and Rashida Jones. His 2018 book '' Lake Success'' was promoted by a film trailer with Ben Stiller. His fifth novel, ''Our Country Friends,'' was published by Random House in 2021. It is a story about friends who spend the pandemic together. His other writing has appeared in ''

'', ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

'', ''

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 ...

'', '' Travel and Leisure'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', and ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

''.

Blurbs

Shteyngart has also become known for his prolific blurbing, which has inspired a

Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...

website devoted to his Collected Blurbs, a live reading, and a fifteen-minute documentary narrated by Jonathan Ames.

Bibliography

Novels

* * * * * *

Memoirs

Short stories

* * * *

Essays and reporting

* * * * * * * *

Personal life

Shteyngart is married to Esther Won, who is of Korean descent. They have a son, born October 2013. Shteyngart now lives in the Gramercy neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. He spends six months out of the year at a house in northern Dutchess County, in the Hudson River Valley where he does nearly all of his writing.

References

Interviews

*
Interview
– Program for Jewish Civilization –

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

Interview 'On Meat over Meat: Dinner with Gary Shteyngart'
published in '' Gigantic''
Interview with Gary Shteyngart: On Travel Writing
* Rozalia Jovanovic
James Franco's Face: A Subjective Account of the New Yorker Festival
October 26, 2009

with Gary Shteyngart on

CBC Radio One CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent o ...

's '' Writers and Company''
In Conversation: 1984 2.0: Gary Shteyngart with Alessandro Cassin, ''The Brooklyn Rail''

Interview with Gary Shteyngart about Absurdistan
– ''BOOKSWEB TV'' (English and Italian)
"Gary Shteyngart Becomes American"
– Jewcy Magazine

– Modern Drunkard Magazine
Interview
at barnesandnoble.com
Gary Shteyngart: Introducing a toilet
Recorded at Louisiana Literature festival. Video by Louisiana Channel.

External links

* Walter Kirn.
Review: "Absurdistan", by Gary Shteyngart – Russian Unorthodox
',

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

, April 30, 2006
Zadie Smith & Gary Shteyngart
at

McNally Jackson McNally Jackson Books is an independent bookstore in New York City owned and operated since 2004 by Sarah McNally. The company operates five stores across the city in Soho, Rockefeller Center, Seaport, Downtown Brooklyn, and Williamsburg, as ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shteyngart, Gary 1972 births Living people American people of Russian-Jewish descent Exophonic writers Soviet emigrants to the United States Oberlin College alumni Hunter College alumni Writers from Saint Petersburg Stuyvesant High School alumni Hunter College faculty Columbia University faculty Princeton University faculty American satirists Jewish American novelists American male novelists The New Yorker people Writers Guild of America Award winners Novelists from New York (state) Novelists from New Jersey American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American Jews