Ruth Franklin | |
|---|---|
| Born | Baltimore, Maryland, United States |
| Education | B.A., English Language and Literature, 1995,Columbia University M.A., comparative literature,Harvard University |
| Occupation | Author |
| Awards | National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography |
| Website | ruthfranklin |
Ruth Franklin is an Americanliterary critic. She is a former editor atThe New Republic and anAdjunct professor atNew York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Her firstbiography,Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, won theNational Book Critics Circle Award for Biography and was named aNew York Times Notable Book of 2016.
Growing up, Franklin attended thePark School of Baltimore.[1] During her senior year of high school, Franklin interned at a newspaper where she experienced sexual harassment from older reporters.[2] After graduating, Franklin enrolled inColumbia University for herBachelor of Arts degree in English Language and Literature. She later graduated fromHarvard University with aMaster's degree in Comparative Literature.[1]
In 1999, Franklin began her literary critiquing career atThe New Republic.[3] While working as a senior critic, she published her first book titledA Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction in 2010. In Franklin's bookA Thousand Darknesses, she critiqued the assumption that Holocaust survivor testimonies were completely factual and should be taken as such. "Her study questions the privileging of autobiography over fiction and endorses imagination as a form of truth-telling," wrote Heidi E. Bollinger.[4] Franklin instead argued that Holocaust literature was better understood through fiction.[5] As a result, she was the co-recipient of the 2012 Roger Shattuck Prize for Criticism alongsideDavid Yaffe[6] and named a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize.[7]
The following year, she was the recipient of aGuggenheim Fellowship and began writing her second book,Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life.[3] She spent six years conducting research for her book, including sorting through Jackson's archives at theLibrary of Congress.[8] Upon its publication, she won the 2017National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography[9] and was named a finalist for thePEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography.[10] The book was also named aNew York Times Notable Book of 2016[11] and one ofTime magazine's top nonfiction book of the year.[12] The following year, she received the 2017Phi Beta Kappa Society Book Award[13] and Plutarch Award.[14]
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