Meg Wolitzer

» Episode 4: Inside Out

“All around the country,
the women were waking up.”

Meg Wolitzer's seven previous novels include The Position and The Wife, and her short fiction has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize.

She came to love books at an early age. Her mother, Hilma Wolitzer, published two novels. Meg went on to edit literary magazines in junior high and high school before graduating from Brown University and embarking on her literary career.

Wolitzer can't listen to music while writing, but she does continue her reading when she's in the middle of a project: "I've heard writers talk about how they don't like to read much when they're writing, and I always find this odd. I really prefer to be excited by books when I'm writing one: I'd rather be jealous of someone else's book than have my mind empty and underfurnished and just waiting to be filled only by my own work."

The novel that has most influenced her is Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell. "This is the perfect modern novel," she has said. "Short, concise, moving, and about a character you come to care about, despite her limitations. It reminds me of life. It takes place over a span of time, and it's hilarious, tragic, and always stirring."

Wolitzer has taught in the graduate writing programs at Columbia University, the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, and Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. She lives in New York City.

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