Zoë Heller | |
|---|---|
 Heller in 2007 | |
| Born | Zoë Kate Hinde Heller (1965-07-07)7 July 1965 (age 60) |
| Alma mater | St Anne's College, Oxford Columbia University (M.A.) |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, novelist |
| Spouse | Lawrence Konner (separated)[1] |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | Lukas Heller Caroline Carter Heller |
| Relatives | Bruno Heller (brother) Cordelia Edvardson (aunt) Hermann Heller (grandfather) |
Zoë Kate Hinde Heller (born 7 July 1965) is an English journalist and novelist long resident in New York City. She has published three novels,Everything You Know (1999),Notes on a Scandal (2003), andThe Believers (2008).Notes on a Scandal was shortlisted for theBooker Prize and was adapted fora feature film in 2006.
Heller was born inSt Pancras, northLondon, as the youngest of four children of Caroline (née Carter) andLukas Heller, a successful screenwriter; her parents separated when she was five.[2] Her father was a German Jewish immigrant and her mother was English and aQuaker.[3][4] Her paternal grandfather was the political philosopherHermann Heller.[5] Her brother is screenwriterBruno Heller. Her sister,Lucy Heller, is Chief Executive of education charityArk[6] and previously Managing Director of Times Supplements Ltd, the former educational publishing wing ofNews UK.
She attendedHaverstock School in north London where she was a contemporary ofDavid Miliband[7] and then studiedEnglish atSt Anne's College, Oxford, gaining a first, before going on toColumbia University,New York where she received anMA on Marxist theories of literature andJonathan Swift.[2][8]
After a period at the UK publisherChatto and a spell as a freelance book reviewer, Heller was taken on as a staff feature writer forThe Independent on Sunday.[7] She later returned to New York in the early 1990s contracted to write forVanity Fair. Deputizing forNick Hornby while he was on holiday led to her reputation as a confessional writer.[7] She wrote forThe New Yorker, a weekly column forThe Sunday Times Magazine in the UK,[9] and was a columnist forThe Daily Telegraph, for which she won theBritish Press Awards' "Columnist of the Year" in 2002.[10] She co-wrote the screenplay for the independent film,Twenty-One (1991).
Heller has published three novels,Everything You Know (1999),Notes on a Scandal (2003), which was one of six books shortlisted for theBooker Prize and was made intoa film in 2006, andThe Believers (2008).The Believers was shortlisted for theInternational Dublin Literary Award in 2010.[9]
In 2009, she donated the short storyWhat She Did On Her Summer Vacation toOxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the 'Water' collection.[11]
In 2006, she married screenwriterLawrence Konner in a "minimally"Jewish ceremony;[12] the couple separated in 2010.[1] Heller lives in New York City with her two daughters, Lula and Frankie.[1]
