Idra Novey is an American novelist, poet, and translator. She translates from Portuguese, Spanish, and Persian and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Idra Novey
BornWestern Pennsylvania[1]
OccupationWriter, poet, translator
NationalityAmerican
EducationBA, Barnard College, 2000[2]
MFA, Columbia University

Career

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Idra Novey[3] is a novelist, poet, and translator. She is the author of the novels Take What You Need (2023),[4][5][6] a New York Times Notable Book,[7] Ways to Disappear (2016)[8] and Those Who Knew (2018),[9][10][11][12][13] which received the 2017 Sami Rohr Prize,[14] the 2016 Brooklyn Eagles Prize,[15] and was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize for First Fiction.[16] Those Who Knew[17] was also a finalist for the 2019 Clark Fiction Prize,[18] a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and a Best Book of the Year with over a dozen media outlets, including NPR,[19] Esquire, BBC, Kirkus Review, and O Magazine. Her poetry collections include Exit, Civilian (2011), selected for the 2011 National Poetry Series, The Next Country (2008), a finalist for the 2008 Foreword Book of the Year Award, and Clarice: The Visitor, a collaboration with the artist Erica Baum. Her fiction and poetry have been translated into a dozen languages and she’s written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, and The Paris Review. She is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Poets & Writers Magazine, the PEN Translation Fund, the Poetry Foundation, and The Pushcart Prize. Her works as a translator include Clarice Lispector’s novel The Passion According to G.H. and a co-translation with Ahmad Nadalizadeh of Iranian poet Garous Abdolmalekian [fa], Lean Against This Late Hour, a finalist for the PEN America Poetry in Translation Prize in 2021. She teaches fiction in the MFA Program at NYU and at Princeton University.

She is the most recent translator of The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector, On Elegance While Sleeping by Viscount Lascano Tegui, Birds for a Demolition by Manoel de Barros, and The Clean Shirt of It by Paulo Henriques Britto. With Ahmad Nadalizadeh, she has co-translated from Persian a collection of Iranian poet Garous Abdolmalekian, entitled Lean Against This Late Hour (2020).

Her fiction and poetry have been translated into ten languages,[20] and she has received awards from Poets & Writers, the Poetry Foundation, the Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize, and the National Endowment of the Arts.

Personal life

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Idra grew up in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, one of four siblings. She graduated from Barnard College,[21] and from Columbia University.[22][23] She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.[24]

Published works

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Novels

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  • Take What You Need (Viking Books, 2023) ISBN 978-0593652855 [25][26]
  • Those Who Knew (Viking Books, 2018) ISBN 9780525560432[27]
  • Ways to Disappear (Little, Brown & Company, 2016) ISBN 9780316298506

Full-length poetry collections

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Chapbooks and cahiers

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Translations

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Short stories

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Selected poems

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Nonfiction

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Honors and awards

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  • 2022 Pushcart Prize for "The Glacier," Yale Review[29]
  • 2017 Sami Rohr Prize, for Ways to Disappear[30]
  • 2016 Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize, for Ways to Disappear[31]
  • 2016 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction (finalist), for Ways to Disappear[32]
  • 2016 Discover Great New Writers Pick, Barnes & Noble, for Ways to Disappear[33]
  • 2011 National Poetry Series, for Exit, Civilian
  • 2011 Best Translated Book Award (shortlisted), for On Elegance While Sleeping[34]
  • 2009 NEA Literature Fellowship for Translation[35]
  • 2007 Kinereth Gensler Award, for The Next Country[36]
  • 2007 PEN Translation Fund Grant from PEN American Center, for The Clean Shirt of It[37]
  • 2005 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Series Fellowship, for The Next Country[38]

References

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  1. ^ Brown, Emma. "Culture: The Mystery Writer," Interview (Dec. 31, 2015).
  2. ^ "Celebrating Barnard's Artists," Archived 2016-03-16 at the Wayback Machine Barnard Magazine (Dec. 5, 2014)
  3. ^ idranovey.com
  4. ^ Moss, Sarah (2023-03-13). "A Novel of Messy Relationships — Like the America It's Set In". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-04-10.
  5. ^ "Take What You Need — a major novel of contemporary America". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2024-04-10.
  6. ^ Berry, Lorraine (2023-03-14). "Idra Novey's new novel proves fiction can be worth a thousand think pieces". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-04-10.
  7. ^ , a New York Times Notable Book,
  8. ^ Dustin Illingworth (April 1, 2016). "The vapor between languages: Idra Novey on writing and translation". LA Times Books. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  9. ^ Barbara Hoffert (May 14, 2018). "Sophisticated Reads: Fiction Previews, Nov. 2018". Library Journal. Archived from the original on May 30, 2018. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  10. ^ "'Those Who Knew' by Idra Novey addresses the 'patriarchal messages we have been marinating in'".
  11. ^ "How to Tell an Open Secret". The Atlantic. 16 January 2019.
  12. ^ "Book Review: 'Those Who Knew'". NPR.org.
  13. ^ Ilana Masad (2018-11-08) [2018-11-05]. "A popular senator hides his violent ways in a novel that feels eerily prescient". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 1330888409.[please check these dates]
  14. ^ "Winners".
  15. ^ "Brooklyn Public Library Announces Winners of Second Annual Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize". 24 October 2016.
  16. ^ "L.A. Times Book Prize finalists include Zadie Smith and Rep. John Lewis; Thomas McGuane will be honored". Los Angeles Times. 22 February 2017.
  17. ^ Florsheim, Lane (5 November 2018). "Idra Novey Wrote a #MeToo Novel Before the #MeToo Movement". Wall Street Journal.
  18. ^ "Rebecca Makkai wins 2019 Clark Fiction Prize for 'The Great Believers'". July 2021.
  19. ^ "NPR's Book Concierge".
  20. ^ "Idra Novey". Penguin Random House. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
  21. ^ "Literary Roundup | Barnard College". Archived from the original on 2018-11-26. Retrieved 2023-06-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  22. ^ "WRI_Alumna Idra Novey Wins $100,000 Sami Rohr Prize". Archived from the original on 2021-11-12. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
  23. ^ "Idra Novey". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  24. ^ "Idra Novey: 'I wanted to burn down the house of fiction'". the Guardian. 2016-08-18. Retrieved 2022-06-29.
  25. ^ Moss, Sarah (2023-03-13). "A Novel of Messy Relationships — Like the America It's Set In". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  26. ^ Frank, Joan. "A mysterious rift propels the story in 'Take What You Need'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
  27. ^ "Review | A popular senator hides his violent ways in a novel that feels eerily prescient". Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
  28. ^ @YaleReview (10 May 2022). "1/ We're so thrilled to announce that four of our contributors have won 2022 Puschart Prizes! Congratulations to…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  29. ^ @YaleReview (10 May 2022). "1/ We're so thrilled to announce that four of our contributors have won 2022 Puschart Prizes! Congratulations to…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  30. ^ "Idra Novey wins Sami Rohr prize for Jewish literature". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. May 3, 2017. Retrieved May 3, 2017.
  31. ^ "Brooklyn Public Library Announces Winners of Second Annual Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize". Brooklyn Public Library. October 22, 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  32. ^ "Previous Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Winners & Finalists". 2017. Archived from the original on 2016-01-16. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
  33. ^ Miwa Messer (December 2, 2015). "Announcing the Discover Great New Writers Spring 2016 Selections". Barnes & Noble. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  34. ^ 2011 Best Translated Book Award: Fiction Longlist
  35. ^ National Endowment for the Arts 2009 Grant Awards: Literature Fellowships for Translation Projects
  36. ^ Alice James Books > Past Award Winners Archived 2008-07-09 at the Wayback Machine
  37. ^ PEN American Center > Translation Fund Grants Archived 2012-06-27 at the Wayback Machine
  38. ^ Poetry Society of America > Chapbook Fellowships > Past Winners

External links.

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  Media related to Idra Novey at Wikimedia Commons