Claire Messud

Claire Messud's first novel, When the World Was
Steady, and her book of novellas, The Hunters,
were finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award; her second novel,
The Last Life, was a Publishers Weekly Best
Book of the Year and an Editor's Choice at The Village
Voice. All three books were New York Times
Notable Books of the Year. She has been awarded a Guggenheim
Fellowship and a Radcliffe Fellowship, and is the current
recipient of the Strauss Living Award from the American
Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Somerville,
Massachusetts, with her husband and children.