02 March 2007

Best US writers under 35

Here's a list to make you feel old: Granta's just announced its second list of 21 best American writers under age 35.

  • Daniel Alarcon
  • Judy Budnitz
  • Kevin Brockmeier
  • Christopher Coake
  • Anthony Doerr
  • Jonathan Safran Foer
  • Nell Freudenberger
  • Olga Grushin
  • Dara Horn
  • Gabe Hudson
  • Uzodinma Iweala
  • Nicole Krauss
  • Rattawut Lapcharoensap
  • Yiyun Li; Maile Meloy
  • ZZ Packer
  • Jess Row
  • Karen Russell
  • Akhil Sharma
  • Gary Shteyngart
  • John Wray

    I've heard of Safran Foer but none of the rest, but I *want* to hear more of ZZ Packer. Talk about a great nik.

    If an editor had breathed that name back when I was in the book biz I'd've given the thumbs up sans needing to read a single word.

    Tempus Fugit note: Like the music, I suppose. One day you're embarrassingly au fait with the top bands and all 'em indie coves, the next you haven't a clue.

    Those names up there are total mysteries to me which makes it all the more ironic that, back in the mists of, I once sat on a panel of earnest literary Turks entrusted with selecting a top 20 of pimply Brit scribblers of promise. I actually knew what I was doing, and I didn't just go for the guys I clubbed with or the damsels most likely to adorn my casting couch.

    Quite a few them actually went on to deliver the goods.
  • 2 comments :

    Anonymous said...

    An interesting list. Many expected, the others I look forward to reading. I just read at the NBCC blog that karen Russell was once upon a time a dating-blogger at nerve.com--my one-stop shop of high-class smut--writing under the handle "Strumpet22" and prmised by the site to deliver a 'creamy, neurosis-filled center." sounds yummy!

    Corfucius said...

    good comment; good tip ref nerve.com, the sort of site i'm on the constant search for. strumpet22 is a good nik. i once cornered domain name 'strumpert' for a busking site that never took off. yummy, indeed. thanks for the trouble of keeping corfucius one of the more discerningly commented around.