Helen DeWitt (born 1957 in

Takoma Park Takoma Park is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Washington, and part of the Washington metropolitan area. Founded in 1883 and incorporated in 1890, Takoma Park, informally called " Azalea City", is a Tree ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

) is an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

. She is the author of the novels ''

The Last Samurai ''The Last Samurai'' is a 2003 epic period action drama film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay with John Logan and Marshall Herskovitz from a story devised by Logan. The film stars Ken Watanabe in the ...

'' (2000) and '' Lightning Rods'' (2011) and the short story collection ''Some Trick'' (2018) and, in collaboration with the Australian journalist Ilya Gridneff, has written ''Your Name Here''. She lives in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Life

DeWitt grew up primarily in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

(Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador), as her parents worked in the United States diplomatic service. After a year at

Northfield Mount Hermon Northfield Mount Hermon School, often called NMH, is a co-educational preparatory school in Gill, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is a member of the Eight Schools Association. Present day NMH offers nearly 200 courses, including AP and ...

School and two short periods at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

, DeWitt studied

classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, first at

Lady Margaret Hall Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located on the banks of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The college is more formall ...

, and then at

Brasenose College Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the m ...

for her

D.Phil. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

, where her thesis examined the concept of propriety in ancient literary criticism. Afterwards she became a junior research fellow at

Somerville College Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

Work

DeWitt is best known for her

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

, ''

''. She held a variety of jobs while struggling to finish a book, including

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies ...

text tagger, copytaker,

Dunkin' Donuts Dunkin' Donuts LLC, also known as Dunkin' and by the initials DD, is an American multinational coffee and doughnut company, as well as a quick service restaurant. It was founded by Bill Rosenberg (1916–2002) in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 195 ...

employee, legal secretary, and working at a laundry service. During this time she reportedly attempted to finish many novels, before finally completing ''The Last Samurai'', her 50th manuscript, in 1998. It was published in 2000 by Talk Miramax Books. In 1999, DeWitt had completed another novel, '' Lightning Rods'', and later signed a contract for it with

Miramax Books Miramax Books was an American publishing company started by Bob and Harvey Weinstein of Miramax Films to publish movie tie-ins. Between 2000 and 2005, while Jonathan Burnham was its president and editor-in-chief, the imprint published the memoirs ...

in 2003, but it remained unpublished and in limbo. After Miramax Books was folded into Hyperion Books in late 2007, she asked for the rights to be returned. It was eventually published in 2011 by New Directions. In 2005 she collaborated with Ingrid Kerma, the

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 ...

-based painter, writing "limit5" for the exhibition "Blushing Brides". An excerpt from an in-progress novel set in

Flin Flon Flin Flon (pop. 5,185 in 2016 census; 4,982 in Manitoba and 203 in Saskatchewan) is a mining city, located on a correction line on the border of the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, with the majority of the city located within M ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

, has been published online by Open Book: Ontario at the end of an article about the novel and DeWitt's difficulties in finding a publisher. Her short story "Climbers", which explores artistic ideals and commercial realities of the writing life, was published in '' Harper's'' magazine November 2014. In 2018, a collection of thirteen of her short stories, ''Some Trick'', was published by New Directions. It was shortlisted for the 2019 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize. DeWitt published a novella, ''The English Understand Wool'', in 2022. The novella was published as part of a new series from New Directions Publishing, "Storybook ND", which aims to deliver "the pleasure one felt as a child reading a marvelous book from cover to cover in an afternoon".

Bibliography

Novels and novellas

* ''

'' ( Talk Miramax Books/

Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...

, 2000; ) *''Your Name Here'' (co-written with Ilya Gridneff). Was available for purchase as a PDF from DeWitt's website at one time, but remains otherwise unpublished. * '' Lightning Rods'' (New Directions, 2011; And Other Stories, 2012; ) * '' The English Understand Wool'' (New Directions, 2022)

Short stories

* ''Some Trick: Thirteen Stories'' (New York: New Directions, 2018; )

References

External links

*
''Helen DeWitt’s First Time''
,

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, Philip ...

(YouTube) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dewitt, Helen 1957 births American expatriates in Brazil American expatriates in Germany American expatriates in Mexico 20th-century American novelists Living people Novelists from Maryland Smith College alumni Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford 21st-century American novelists People from Takoma Park, Maryland American women novelists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Northfield Mount Hermon School alumni