Wikipedia

Rebecca Makkai

Rebecca Makkai (born April 20, 1978) is an American novelist and short-story writer.[1]

Rebecca Makkai
Makkai at the 2023 Texas Book Festival
Makkai at the 2023 Texas Book Festival
Born (1978-04-20) April 20, 1978 (age 45)
OccupationWriter
EducationWashington and Lee University (BA)
Middlebury College (MA)
Notable worksThe Great Believers (2018)
Website
rebeccamakkai.com

Biography edit

Makkai grew up in Lake Bluff, Illinois. She is the daughter of linguistics professors Valerie Becker Makkai and Ádám Makkai [hu], a refugee to the US following the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Her paternal grandmother, Rózsa Ignácz [hu], was a well-known actress and novelist in Hungary.[2] Makkai graduated from Lake Forest Academy and attended Washington and Lee University where she graduated with a B.A. in English.[3] She later earned a master's degree from Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English.[4]

Makkai has taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is on the MFA faculties of Sierra Nevada University and Northwestern University. She is the artistic director of StoryStudio Chicago.[5] Makkai has also taught at Lake Forest College[6] and held the Mackey Chair in Creative Writing at Beloit College in Wisconsin.[7]

She has two children and lives in Lake Forest, Illinois.[8] She met her husband, Jon Freeman, at Bread Loaf.[9]

Career edit

Makkai's debut novel, The Borrower, was released in June 2011.[4][10] It was a Booklist Top Ten Debut, an Indie Next pick, an O, The Oprah Magazine selection,[11] and one of Chicago's choices for best fiction of 2011.[1] It was translated into seven languages.

Her second novel, The Hundred-Year House, is set in the Northern suburbs of Chicago, and was published by Viking Press/Penguin Random House in July 2014.[1][12] It received starred reviews in Booklist, Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. The book won the 2015 Novel of the Year award from the Chicago Writers Association and was named a best book of 2014 by BookPage.

Makkai's third novel, titled The Great Believers, is set during the AIDS epidemic in 1980s Chicago and was published by Viking/Penguin Random House in June 2018.[13] The Great Believers won the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction[14] and was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction.[15] It was also a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction,[16] and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize,[17] the ALA Stonewall Award,[18] and the Chicago Review of Books Award.[19]

Makkai's debut short story collection, Music for Wartime, was published by Viking in June 2015. A starred and featured review in Publishers Weekly said, "Though these stories alternate in time between WWII and the present day, they all are set, as described in the story "Exposition", within "the borders of the human heart"—a terrain that their author maps uncommonly well."[20] The Kansas City Star wrote that "if any short story writer can be considered a rock star of the genre, it's Rebecca Makkai."[21]

Her short stories have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 and as well as in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009 and 2016; she received a 2017 Pushcart Prize, a 2014 NEA fellowship, and a 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship. Makkai's fiction has also appeared in The New Yorker,[22] Ploughshares, Tin House, The Threepenny Review, New England Review, and Shenandoah.[1][4] Her nonfiction has appeared in Harpers, Salon.com, and The New Yorker website. Makkai's stories have also been featured on Public Radio International's Selected Shorts and This American Life.[23]

Bibliography edit

Novels edit

Short story collections edit

  • Music for Wartime ( 2015, Viking)

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d "Rebecca Makkai, author, Chicago – Rebecca Makkai". Rebecca Makkai. Retrieved December 25, 2014.
  2. ^ Garner, Dwight (July 7, 2015). "Review: Rebecca Makkai's 'Music for Wartime,' Stories With Echoes of Loss". The New York Times. Retrieved April 18, 2019.
  3. ^ Richardson, Tracy. "Interview with Rebecca Makkai". Shenandoah. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c "Interview with Rebecca Makkai". Shenandoahliterary.org. Retrieved December 25, 2014.
  5. ^ "Faculty of the Master of Arts in Writing". Northwestern University School of Professional Studies. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  6. ^ "Rebecca Freeman". Lake Forest College. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  7. ^ "Rebecca Makkai". Beloit College. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  8. ^ Borrelli, Christopher (June 20, 2018). "Rebecca Makkai, author of Chicago-set 'The Great Believers,' knows the value of diligence". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  9. ^ Jennings, Matt (July 26, 2019). "A Conversation with Rebecca Makkai". Middlebury Magazine. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  10. ^ Chicago Tribune (June 21, 2011). "The Borrower By Rebecca Makkai – Chicago Tribune". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved December 25, 2014.
  11. ^ "The Borrower". Oprah.com. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  12. ^ "Chicago Author Spotlight: Rebecca Makkai". Chicagoist.com. Archived from the original on November 5, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  13. ^ "The Great Believers". Penguin Random House. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  14. ^ "'The Great Believers,' 'Heavy: An American Memoir,' receive 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction". News and Press Center. January 27, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2019.
  15. ^ "The 2018 National Book Award finalists are in. Here's the full list". Vox. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  16. ^ "2019 Pulitzer Prizes". Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  17. ^ "Book Prizes". Festival of Books. Archived from the original on July 3, 2019. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  18. ^ "Stonewall Book Awards List". Round Tables. September 9, 2009. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  19. ^ Morgan, Adam (October 10, 2018). "The Fiction Shortlist for the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Award". Chicago Review of Books. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  20. ^ "Music for Wartime". Publishers Weekly. June 15, 2015. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  21. ^ Pivovar, Christine (July 25, 2015). "Rebecca Makkai shows off her skill for short stories in 'Music for Wartime'". The Kansas City Star. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
  22. ^ "Rebecca Makkai on Serious Parody". The New Yorker. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
  23. ^ "Book Review: 'The Borrower' by Rebecca Makkai". Wbez.org. Archived from the original on November 17, 2015. Retrieved December 25, 2014.

External links edit

 
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