Nicole Krauss

Nicole Krauss was a critically acclaimed American novelist who in 2017 released her fourth novel, Forest Dark, to widespread acclaim. Born in Manhattan and raised on Long Island, Krauss was obsessed with reading as a young girl and dreamt of becoming a fiction writer. She initially turned to poetry, however, and spent the majority of her teen years writing and publishing it. In 1992 Krauss entered Stanford University in California and continued writing poetry while majoring in English. It was during her time at Stanford that Krauss met the Russian-American poet Joseph Brodsky, who served as her mentor and champion throughout her years at Stanford, while also introducing her to the works of respected poets that she had not previously been exposed to. Krauss graduated from Stanford in 1996 with honors, and soon after enrolled in the masters program at Oxford University in England. Krauss eventually turned to fiction writing in 2001, when she began what would become her debut novel Man Walks Into a Room (2002). When the book was published in 2002, Krauss was heralded as a promising new author in the world of literary fiction. In 2004 Krauss married fellow novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, thus creating one of New York's most prominent literary power couples, and the following year published her second novel The History of Love. In 2010 Kraus, along with her then husband Safran Foer, were included in the New Yorker magazine's prestigious list of 20 writers under the age of 40. Krauss's third novel, Great House, was published in 2010, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. It would be another seven years before her fourth novel was published. That book, Forest Dark, received rave reviews upon its publication in September 2017, highlighting Krauss's status as one of the most important novelists of her generation.