The New Yorker recently announced their list of “20 Under 40“, a compilation of up-and-coming young writers “who capture the inventiveness and the vitality of contemporary American fiction.” The list is a combination of both established talents and those on the cusp of success, writers with several published books to their names and others who’ve yet to grace the shelves of the bookstore. The magazine will publish a story by each chosen writer in the coming months, and there’s a Q & A with the full 20 on their website; it’s an insightful and interesting peek into the future of fiction writing.
The full list: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 32; Chris Adrian, 39; Daniel Alarcón, 33; David Bezmozgis, 37; Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, 38; Joshua Ferris, 35; Jonathan Safran Foer, 33; Nell Freudenberger, 35; Rivka Galchen, 34; Nicole Krauss, 35; Yiyun Li, 37; Dinaw Mengestu, 31; Philipp Meyer, 36; C. E. Morgan, 33; Téa Obreht, 24; Z Z Packer, 37; Karen Russell, 28; Salvatore Scibona, 35; Gary Shteyngart, 37; and Wells Tower, 37.
Update: Sam Tanenhaus, editor of the New York Times Book Review, has an interesting take on the “20 Under 40″ list, asking whether or not the distinction of “young writer” is slightly off. With many of the writers on the list in their mid-to-late thirties, he argues, can they really still be classified as budding talents? The argument is that, while many authors have long and extensively rich careers, some of their most enduring works are completed before they reach 40, or even 30. Tanenhaus quotes Kazuo Ishiguro on the subject —“There’s something very misleading about the literary culture that looks at writers in their 30s and calls them ‘budding’ or ‘promising,’ when in fact they’re peaking” — and cites examples of great works that were composed by very young writers. James Joyce was 25 when he wrote “The Dead”, Thomas Mann 24 when he completed “Buddenbrooks”, Hemingway and Fitzgerald 27 and 28, respectively, when they penned “The Sun Also Rises” and “The Great Gatsby.” On the other side of the coin are writers like Virginia Woolf and Henry James, both artists whose careers “blossomed” after 40. It’s an interesting prospect to consider — what is the correlation between an author’s youth and the quality of their writing? What defines a “young writer”? It’s also slightly depressing, particularly as put by John Updike: “Writers are not scholars but athletes, who grow beer bellies after 30.”
