BOOKFINDS

New Yorker’s 20 under 40 issue

Not since 1999 has The New Yorker put out an issue with stories by 20 hot young authors under 40. In that issue there was Jonathan Franzen and Jeffery Eugendies as well as a lot more.

Now in the 2010 issue there is a new crop of writers, some with familar names  (Jonathan Safron Foer, Gary Shteyngart, Joshua Ferris) as well as some new ones (Karen Rusell, Wells Tower, C.E Morgan.) There are more international writers on the list (Daniel Alarcon, Dinaw Mengestu, Yiyun Li from China, Ethiopia, Russia and Yugoslavia). The youngest is 24 year old Tea Obreht with a debut novel out next year and the oldest is 39 year old Chris Adrian, a man studying medicine and theology.

The issue should hit newstands this week and you can go to New Yorker’s website and read a small interview with all of authors, read how they made the list and listen to an interview with the fiction editors Deborah Treisman and Cressida Leysh. Eight of the writers pieces will be in the double issue, while the other 12 stories will appear in issues through out the summer.

Here’s the list of authors, their age and their books:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 32, That Thing Around Your Neck, Half of a Yellow Sun, Purple Hibiscus

Chris Adrian, 39, The Children’s Hospital, A Better Angel, Gob’s Grief

Daniel Alarcón, 33, War by Candlelight, Lost City Radio

David Bezmozgis, 37, Natasha and Other Stories

Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, 38, Madeline is Sleeping, Mrs. Hempel Chronicles

Joshua Ferris, 35, Then We Came to the End, The Unnamed

Jonathan Safran Foer, 33, Everything is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Eating Animals

Nell Freudenberger, 35, Lucky Girls, The Dissident

Rivka Galchen, 34, Atmospheric Disturbances

Nicole Krauss, 35, Man Walks into a Room, History of Love

Yiyun Li, 37, The Vagrants, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

Dinaw Mengestu, 31, The Beautiful Thing That Heaven Bears

Philipp Meyer, 36, American Rust

C. E. Morgan, 33, All the Living

Téa Obreht, 24, The Tiger’s Wife (March 2011)

Z Z Packer, 37, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

Karen Russell, 28, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

Salvatore Scibona, 35, The End

Gary Shteyngart, 37, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Absurdistan, Super Sad True Love Story

Wells Tower, 37- Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned

And because everyone wants to talk about hot young writers, there has been plenty of digital ink spilled about this big issue. Farrar Strauss and Giroux has already decided they are going to compile all the stories in the issue into an anthology.

Associated Links:

Frank Kovarik’s essay at The Millions about the issue

New York points out that most of the (mostly very good!) stories are about failed romance

Arts Beat: New York Times

Guardian (UK)

20 Young Writer Earn the Envy of Many Others- New York Times