Amity Gaige | |
|---|---|
 Amity Gaige and Adam Haslett in Conversation at Greenlight Bookstore - February 28, 2013 | |
| Born | 1972 (age 52–53) |
| Alma mater | Brown University Iowa Writers' Workshop |
| Genre | Novel |
| Notable awards | 5 Under 35 Honoree |
| Spouse | Tim Watt |
Amity Gaige (born 1972) is an American novelist, known for her booksO My Darling,The Folded World,Schroder, andSea Wife. She is a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow in Fiction. She is currently Lecturer in English atYale University.[1]
Amity Gaige was born inCharlotte, North Carolina, United States, to an academic father and a psychologist mother. The Gaige family moved several times before settling inReading, Pennsylvania. She graduated fromBrown University, where she studied English and theater. She later obtained an M.F.A. from theIowa Writers' Workshop (1999).[citation needed][2]
Her first novel,O My Darling (Other Press, 2005)[3] won her a place in the inaugural year of theNational Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Awards.[4]
Her second novel,The Folded World, was published in 2007 (Other Press, Random House),[5] and garnered independent publishing awards that year.[6][7]
Her third novel,Schroder (Twelve Books, 2013)[8] was a shortlist nominee for Britain's inaugural GB£40,000Folio Prize in 2014. The novel stirred controversy in its depiction of a reckless young father who flees with his six-year-old daughter on a road trip throughNew England after a custody battle. The author drew inspiration from the real-lifeChristian Gerhartsreiter story, though the book is not a novelization of that story. In style and form,Schroder drew comparison to works byNabokov.[9][10] TheLos Angeles Times wrote, "Schroder's closest literary relative is probablyLolita (minus the pedophilia),"[11] andKathryn Schulz suggested that Gaige intendedSchroder as an homage and an "appropriation" ofLolita in New York Magazine, which published a scratched-out image of Nabokov's cover art.[12] Gaige also citedPale Fire as an influence in an interview withThe New York Times' John Williams.[13]The book was sold pre-publication for translation into fifteen languages, and was endorsed on the Dutch television showDe Wereld Draait Door,[14] sending the book into numerous reprintings. In the U.S., the book won endorsements fromJonathan Franzen andJennifer Egan,[15] and was reviewed in nearly every major print outlet, making it one of the most heavily reviewed books of the year.[16][17][18][19][20][21][22] According to WorldCat, the book is held in 3,873 libraries, with editions in 8 languages.[23]
Her fourth novel,Sea Wife, was published in 2020 (Knopf).[24] The novel was selected as a Group Text pick by Elisabeth Egan of The New York Times, who wrote in her review, "Gaige tows you to tragedy with the graceful crawl of a poet and the motorboat intensity of a suspense author. And yet, when you find yourself at the deep end of this book, gasping for breath, you will still be shocked by what you find at the bottom."[25] The maritime metaphors continued in a People Magazine review, which selectedSea Wife as Book of the Week, stating "Gaige's razor-sharp novel is wise to marital and broader politics. But it's also such gripping escapism that it feels like a lifeboat." In an interview with Susan Choi in The Millions,[26] Gaige talked about the research involved in writing a book set at sea, "It's possible that the tension the reader feels in reading Sea Wife runs parallel to the tension of the author trying to write it. Maybe I've bought into a kind of Stanislavskian theory of needing the stakes of my writing to be as high as those of my characters. The process was not without casualty."
Gaige's fifth novel,Heartwood (Simon & Schuster, 2025;ISBN 978-1-6680-6360-6) was published by Simon & Schuster in April 2025. Heartwood was selected byJenna Bush Hager ofThe Today Show as her "Read With Jenna" book club selection for April 2025.[27]Heartwood received positive reviews inThe Washington Post,[28] theWall Street Journal,[29] andBoston.com.[30]
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