Who

Egan is a novelist, critical darling and author of zeitgeisty trend pieces.

Backstory

The daughter of a lawyer and an art dealer, the Chicago-born and San Francisco-raised Egan attended the University of Pennsylvania and Cambridge. She started out as a journalist and published her first novel, The Invisible Circus, in 1994 at age 32. Several other books followed: the novels Look at Me (2001), The Keep (2006), and the short story collection Emerald City (1996). Egan, who is repped by Binky Urban, was previously published by Nan Talese, but is currently with Sonny Mehta's Knopf.

Of note

Egan writes atmospheric and thematically bold novels that straddle the elusive literary/commercial divide and are almost universally admired by critics. The Keep is a gothic story-within-a-story of an American man's stay at his cousin's castle in central Europe, as imagined by a prison inmate; Look At Me is about the reinvention of a model whose looks were destroyed in a car accident; and The Invisible Circus follows a young woman's trip to Italy as she traces the path to her sister's mysterious death. (The 2001 movie adaptation, starring Cameron Diaz, was an unfortunate bomb.) Despite her success as a novelist, Egan hasn't abandoned journalism and often publishes articles exploring of-the-minute social issues. She's written a number of memorable New York Times Magazine cover stories including "Wanted: A Few Good Sperm," "To Be Young and Homeless," and "Lonely Gay Teen Seeking Same."

Trophy case

Look at Me (which was published the same week as Sept. 11 and suffered sales-wise as a result) was a finalist for the National Book Award. Egan has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Personal

Egan is married to theatre director David Herskovits. They have two boys, and live in Brooklyn.