Deleatur yhe: Created page without categories

2026-09-03T04:02:47Z

Created page without categories

New page

{{Short description|American author (born 1981)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2016}}
{{Infobox writer 
| name = Ottessa Moshfegh
| image = Ottessa Moshfegh 2015.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Moshfegh at the 2015 [[Texas Book Festival]]
| pen_name =
| birth_name = Ottessa Charlotte Moshfegh
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1981|5|20|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = {{flatlist|
*Novelist
*writer}}
| period =
| education = [[Barnard College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br>[[Brown University]] ([[Master of Fine Arts|MFA]])
| genre = {{flatlist|
*Fiction
*essays}}
| subject =
| movement =
| notable_works = ''[[Eileen (novel)|Eileen]]''<br>''[[My Year of Rest and Relaxation]]''
| influences =
| influenced =
| website = {{URL|https://ottessathisottessathat.substack.com}}
| signature = Ottessa Moshfegh signature.svg
}}
'''Ottessa Charlotte Moshfegh''' ({{IPAc-en|oʊ|ˈ|t|ɛ|s|ə|_|ˈ|m|ɒ|ʃ|f|ɛ|ɡ}};<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dinnerpartydownload.org/ottessa-moshfegh/|title=Ottessa Moshfegh's 3 Favorite Wanderers and Weirdos|work=The Dinner Part Download|publisher=American Public Media|date=February 10, 2017|access-date=December 2, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/10-things-scare-me/articles/ottessa-moshfegh-10-things-that-scare-me|title=Ottessa Moshfegh|work=[[10 Things That Scare Me]]|publisher= WNYC Studios|date=December 4, 2018|access-date=December 2, 2022}}</ref> born May 20, 1981) is an American author, novelist and screenwriter.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.bustle.com/articles/46082-ottessa-moshfegh-is-the-next-big-thing-and-here-are-7-reasons-why|title=Ottessa Moshfegh Is the Next Big Thing, and Here Are 7 Reasons Why|last=Novak|first=Joanna|date=November 3, 2014|magazine=Bustle|access-date=April 13, 2015}}</ref> Her [[debut novel]], ''[[Eileen (novel)|Eileen]]'' (2015), won the [[Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award]], was shortlisted for the [[Booker Prize]], and was a fiction finalist for the [[National Book Critics Circle Award]].<ref name=NewYorker>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/09/ottessa-moshfeghs-otherworldly-fiction|title=Ottessa Moshfegh's Otherworldly Fiction|last=Levy|first=Ariel|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|access-date=July 3, 2018}}</ref> Moshfegh's subsequent novels include ''[[My Year of Rest and Relaxation]]'', ''[[Death in Her Hands]]'', and ''[[Lapvona]]''.

==Early life and education==
Moshfegh was born in 1981 and raised in [[Boston, Massachusetts]].<ref name="noir">{{cite interview|last=Moshfegh|first=Ottessa|interviewer=Kate Kellaway|title=Ottessa Moshfegh: I didn’t set out to write Eileen as a noir novel|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/28/ottessa-moshfegh-eileen-noir-novel-musical-family-school-interview|access-date=June 1, 2017|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=February 28, 2016}}</ref> Her mother was [[Croatian people|Croatian]] and her father an [[Iranian Jew]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2015/08/15/432356643/character-finds-a-path-out-of-her-personal-prison-in-eileen|title=Character Finds A Path Out of Her Personal Prison In 'Eileen'|date=August 15, 2015|publisher=NPR|access-date=August 15, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/ottessa-moshfegh-wrote-story-girl-tried-sleep-year/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210328230424/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/ottessa-moshfegh-wrote-story-girl-tried-sleep-year/|website=The Telegraph|title= Ottessa Moshfegh: why I wrote the story of a girl who tried to sleep for a year|last=White|first=Duncan|date=August 5, 2018|archive-date=March 28, 2021}}</ref> and both were musicians who taught at the [[New England Conservatory of Music]]. As a child, Moshfegh learned to play piano and clarinet.<ref name="NewYorker" />

Moshfegh attended the [[Commonwealth School]] in Boston<ref>{{cite news|last=Sullivan|first=James|date=2017-01-24|title=The moral to her stories is... not there|work=The Boston Globe|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2017/01/24/the-moral-her-stories-not-there/KUfPlZzRERV3fP66G7NgDP/story.html|access-date=2021-05-18}}</ref> and earned a [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in English from [[Barnard College]] in 2002.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Ottessa Moshfegh {{!}} Literary Arts Program|url=https://www.brown.edu/academics/literary-arts/events/ottessa-moshfegh|access-date=2021-05-19|website=www.brown.edu|archive-date=May 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519113131/https://www.brown.edu/academics/literary-arts/events/ottessa-moshfegh|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2011, she completed an [[Master of Fine Arts|MFA]] in Literary Arts at [[Brown University]],<ref name=":2" /> where she also taught undergraduates.<ref>{{cite web|title=Antonia Angress, "Sirens & Muses," {{!}} Reading the Room|date=August 9, 2022|publisher=The Bar and the Bookcase|website=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEZ1RGJNH6U&t=2044}} (See 34:04 of 39:22 in video.)</ref> From 2013 to 2015, Moshfegh was a [[Stegner Fellowship|Wallace Stegner Fellow]] in fiction at [[Stanford University]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=Christensen|first=Lauren|date=2020-04-16|title=Ottessa Moshfegh Is Only Human|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/books/ottessa-moshfegh-death-in-her-hands.html|access-date=2021-05-18|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name=":3" />

== Career ==
After college, Moshfegh moved to [[China]], where she taught English and worked in a punk bar.<ref name="NewYorker" /> In her mid-twenties, she relocated to [[New York City]], working for [[The Overlook Press|Overlook Press]] and later as an assistant to [[Jean Stein]]. After contracting [[cat-scratch fever]], she left the city and pursued an MFA at [[Brown University]].<ref name="NewYorker" /> During those years, she supported herself by selling vintage clothing, which she has described as mostly "[[Tea gown|tea dresses]]."<ref>{{cite web |last=Phillips |first=Kaitlin |date=July 19, 2018 |url=https://www.thecut.com/2018/07/profile-ottessa-moshfegh.html |title=Ottessa Moshfegh Plays to Win |website=The Cut |access-date=April 29, 2022}}</ref>

=== Works ===
In 2014, [[Fence (magazine)|Fence Books]] published Moshfegh's novella ''[[McGlue]],'' the first winner of the Fence Modern Prize in Prose.<ref>{{Cite web|title=McGlue Otessa Moshfeg {{!}} Fence Books|url=https://www.fenceportal.org/book/mcglue/|access-date=2021-05-19|website=www.fenceportal.org}}</ref> In August 2015, [[Penguin Books|Penguin Press]] published her first full-length novel, ''[[Eileen (novel)|Eileen]],'' which received favorable reviews<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.penguin.com/penguin-press-overview/|title=Eileen: A Novel|work=Penguin Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/books/review/eileen-by-ottessa-moshfegh.html?ref=books&_r=0|title='Eileen,' by Ottessa Moshfegh|last=King|first=Lily|date=August 14, 2015|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=August 14, 2015}}</ref> and was shortlisted for the [[2016 Man Booker Prize]].<ref>{{cite web| first=Paul |last=Laity |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/16/ottessa-moshfegh-interview-book-started-as-joke-man-booker-prize-shortlist |title=Ottessa Moshfegh interview: 'Eileen started out as a joke – also I'm broke, also I want to be famous' |website=[[The Guardian]] |date=September 16, 2016}}</ref> In ''Eileen'', the protagonist and narrator recounts a series of events from her youth in a Massachusetts town she calls "X-ville". At the start of the novel, she works as a secretary at a local juvenile prison while living with and caring for her abusive father, a retired police officer struggling with alcoholism and paranoia. As the story continues, the circumstances that led her to leave X-ville are revealed.

''[[Homesick for Another World]]'', a collection of short stories, was published in January 2017.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/two-moshfegh-cape |title=Two from Moshfegh for Cape |author=Sarah Shaffi |work=[[The Bookseller]] |date=September 19, 2014}}</ref> On July 10, 2018, Penguin Press published Moshfegh's second novel, ''[[My Year of Rest and Relaxation]]''. The book describes a young art history graduate living in New York City over a 15-month period starting in mid-June 2000.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|date=2018-07-22|title=My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh – caustic and acute|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/22/my-year-of-rest-and-relaxation-ottessa-moshfegh-review|access-date=2021-05-18|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref> Recently graduated and ambivalently mourning her parents' deaths, she quits her job as a gallerist and embarks on a yearlong plan to sleep, aided by sleeping pills and other medications prescribed by a dubious psychiatrist.<ref name=":0" />

Also in 2018, Moshfegh wrote a piece for [[Granta]] in which she recounted an experience with a much older male writer when she was 17 years old.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://granta.com/jailbait/|title=Jailbait|date=2018-08-09|website=Granta Magazine|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-06}}</ref> She is a frequent contributor to the ''[[Paris Review]],'' having published eight stories in the journal since 2012.<ref name="bomb" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ottessa Moshfegh |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/authors/31635/ottessa-moshfegh |access-date=2025-10-02 |website=The Paris Review |language=en}}</ref> In 2020, [[Vintage Books|''Vintage'']] published her third novel, ''[[Death in Her Hands]]'',<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-10-09|title=Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh review – meandering murder mystery|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/09/death-in-her-hands-by-ottessa-moshfegh-review-meandering-mystery|access-date=2021-05-18|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref> which Moshfegh has called "a loneliness story".<ref name=":1" />

In 2021, Moshfegh's short story "My New Novel" was published as a stand-alone artbook by Picture Books, an imprint of [[Gagosian Gallery|Gagosian]]. The book features a foldout painting by [[Issy Wood]] illustrating "the most directly surreal part of the story".<ref>{{Cite web |title=My New Novel / The down payment |url=https://gagosianshop.com/products/ottessa-moshfegh-my-new-novel-issy-wood-the-down-payment-book |access-date=2025-10-17 |website=Gagosian Shop |language=en}}</ref> In 2022, Penguin Press published Moshfegh's fourth novel, ''[[Lapvona]]'', which follows Marek, the abused son of a shepherd, along with other characters from the fictional medieval [[fief]]dom of Lapvona.<ref>{{cite magazine|date=March 30, 2022|title=Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ottessa-moshfegh/lapvona-moshfegh/|magazine=[[Kirkus Reviews]]|access-date=November 26, 2022}}</ref>

Moshfegh co-wrote the 2022 drama film ''[[Causeway (film)|Causeway]]'' with Luke Goebel and Elizabeth Sanders.<ref>{{cite web |title=Causeway |url=https://findawriter.wgaeast.org/project/1182381/causeway/ |website=Writers Guild of America East |access-date=15 August 2022}}</ref> It premiered at the [[2022 Toronto International Film Festival]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brunner|first=Raven|title='Causeway' on Apple TV+: Trailer, Cast, Premiere Date and More|url=https://decider.com/2022/10/07/causeway-trailer-cast-premiere-date/|date=October 7, 2022|access-date=April 12, 2024 |website=Decider}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Moshfegh was married to the writer Luke B. Goebel, whom she met during an interview.<ref name="cut">{{cite web|url=https://www.thecut.com/2018/07/profile-ottessa-moshfegh.html|title=Ottessa Moshfegh Plays to Win|last=Phillips|first=Kaitlin|date=July 19, 2018|work=[[New York (magazine)#Digital|The Cut]]|access-date=March 2, 2019}}</ref> As of 2020, they were living in [[Pasadena, California]].<ref>{{cite news |title=You're Probably Wrong About Ottessa Moshfegh |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-06-04/ottessa-moshfegh-profile}}</ref> She has cited the poet and novelist [[Charles Bukowski]] as an influence on her work. Like Moshfegh, Bukowski created characters who were considered socially deprived and isolated.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-03-23 |title=Ottessa Moshfegh {{!}} Biography, Books, Eileen, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ottessa-Moshfegh |access-date=2024-04-23 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>
In 2026, Moshfegh announced she and Goebel were separated.<ref>https://substack.com/@ottessa/note/c-245043463?r=17jaa</ref>

==Awards and honors==
* 2013–15 Wallace [[Stegner Fellowship]] at Stanford University<ref name=":3">{{cite web|url=https://creativewriting.stanford.edu/meet-stegner-fellows/former-stegner-fellows|title=Former Stegner Fellows {{!}} Creative Writing Program|work=stanford.edu|access-date=October 18, 2023}}</ref>
* 2013 [[Plimpton Prize]] for Fiction from ''[[The Paris Review]]'' for her story "Bettering Myself"<ref name=bomb>{{cite web|last1=Stein|first1=Lorin|title=Ottessa Moshfegh|url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/ottessa-moshfegh/|website=BOMB Magazine|date=October 28, 2014|access-date=October 18, 2023}}</ref>
* 2014 [[Believer Book Award]] winner for ''McGlue''<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.believermag.com/issues/201511/?read=article_book_award |title=The Believer Book Award |magazine=[[The Believer (magazine)|The Believer]] |date=November 2015 |access-date=November 23, 2015}}</ref>
* 2016 [[MacDowell (artists' residency and workshop)|MacDowell]] Colony Fellowship<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ottessa Moshfegh - Artist |url=https://www.macdowell.org/artists/ottessa-moshfegh |access-date=2025-08-15 |website=MacDowell |language=en}}</ref>
* 2016 [[Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award]] for ''Eileen''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/names/2016/03/15/ottessa-moshfegh-wins-pen-hemingway-award/8m3LwVd8fXInDpNnuPxLGK/story.html |title=Newton's Ottessa Moshfegh wins 2016 PEN/Hemingway Award |work=[[Boston Globe]] |author=Mark Shanahan |date=March 16, 2016 |access-date=June 22, 2016}}</ref>
* 2016 [[Man Booker Prize]] (shortlist) for ''Eileen''
* 2018 [[The Story Prize]] finalist for ''[[Homesick for Another World]]''

== Bibliography ==
=== Novels ===
*''[[Eileen (novel)|Eileen]]'' (2015)
*''[[My Year of Rest and Relaxation]]'' (2018)
*''[[Death in Her Hands]]'' (2020)
*''[[Lapvona]]'' (2022)

=== Short fiction collections===
*''[[Homesick for Another World]]'' (2017)<ref>{{Cite journal |last= Treisman |first=Deborah |date=December 28, 2015 |title=This Week in Fiction: Ottessa Moshfegh on the Repressed Western Consciousness |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/fiction-this-week-ottessa-moshfegh-2016-01-04 |journal=[[The New Yorker]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Livingstone, Josephine |date=January–February 2017 |title=Ordinary monsters: Ottessa Moshfegh plots twisted fairy tales for an age of alienation. |department= |journal=The New Republic |volume=248 |issue=1–2 |pages=59–60}}</ref>

===Novellas===
* ''[[McGlue]]'' (2014)
* ''My New Novel'' (2021)

== Filmography ==
* ''[[Causeway (film)|Causeway]]'' (2022; co-written with Luke Goebel & Elizabeth Sanders)
* ''[[Eileen (film)|Eileen]]'' (2023; based on her novel; co-written with Luke Goebel)
* ''[[The Three Incestuous Sisters]]'' (TBA; co-written with [[Alice Rohrwacher]])

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb name|7727974}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160624012347/http://logger.believermag.com/post/127573971634/go-forth-vol-36 Believer interview]
*[https://hazlitt.net/feature/page-three-interview-ottessa-moshfegh Hazlitt interview]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20150820225012/http://review.gawker.com/a-necessary-trauma-ottessa-moshfegh-on-eileen-and-risi-1724791494 Gawker interview]
{{Believer Book Award}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moshfegh, Ottessa}}

Ottessa Moshfegh - Revision history

Deleatur yhe: Created page without categories