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Claire Messud
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Claire Messud is an American, Canadian, and French writer known for her literary fiction. She is the author of The Emperor's Children (2006), The Burning Girl (2017), and This Strange Eventful History (2024), which was longlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Giller Prize.
Claire Messud was born in 1966 in Greenwich, Connecticut. She spent her childhood in Australia and Canada before boarding school in the United States. Her father was a pied-noir from French Algeria, and her mother is Canadian.
Claire attended the University of Toronto Schools and Milton Academy, then studied at Yale University and Cambridge University, where she graduated. It was in Cambridge that she met her husband, the critic James Wood.
In 1989, Messud enrolled in the MFA programme at Syracuse University. She later left the programme, describing the experience as incompatible with her background and literary interests. Among her early influences were writers such as Djuna Barnes and Jean Rhys, whose experimental styles shaped her writing.
Her first novel, When the World Was Steady (1995), was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Her second, The Last Life (1999), told the story of a French-Algerian family across generations. The Hunters (2001) contained two novellas. In 2006, The Emperor's Children became a New York Times bestseller and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
In The Burning Girl (2017), Messud explores the dissolution of a childhood friendship. Julia, the narrator, looks back on her bond with Cassie and the fear that shaped their coming of age. "Growing up and being a girl meant learning to be afraid," Julia reflects.
As Cassie rebels and disappears, Julia tells a story of trauma, misunderstanding and emotional distance. The novel was named one of the best books of the year by the Los Angeles Times.
Messud's latest novel, This Strange Eventful History (2024), follows the Cassar family from 1940 to 2010. Displaced from Algiers during the Second World War, the family migrates through the United States, Canada, France and Australia.
Inspired by her own family history, Messud called the novel "about the interconnectedness of our small personal lives and the great historical events that are always unfolding around us". The title is taken from William Shakespeare's As You Like It.
Messud has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. She has also received the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has been a Senior Lecturer at Harvard University since 2015.
Claire Messud lives with her family in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Photo credit: www.clairemessud.com
Claire Messud was born in 1966 in Greenwich, Connecticut. She spent her childhood in Australia and Canada before boarding school in the United States. Her father was a pied-noir from French Algeria, and her mother is Canadian.
Claire attended the University of Toronto Schools and Milton Academy, then studied at Yale University and Cambridge University, where she graduated. It was in Cambridge that she met her husband, the critic James Wood.
In 1989, Messud enrolled in the MFA programme at Syracuse University. She later left the programme, describing the experience as incompatible with her background and literary interests. Among her early influences were writers such as Djuna Barnes and Jean Rhys, whose experimental styles shaped her writing.
Her first novel, When the World Was Steady (1995), was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Her second, The Last Life (1999), told the story of a French-Algerian family across generations. The Hunters (2001) contained two novellas. In 2006, The Emperor's Children became a New York Times bestseller and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
In The Burning Girl (2017), Messud explores the dissolution of a childhood friendship. Julia, the narrator, looks back on her bond with Cassie and the fear that shaped their coming of age. "Growing up and being a girl meant learning to be afraid," Julia reflects.
As Cassie rebels and disappears, Julia tells a story of trauma, misunderstanding and emotional distance. The novel was named one of the best books of the year by the Los Angeles Times.
Messud's latest novel, This Strange Eventful History (2024), follows the Cassar family from 1940 to 2010. Displaced from Algiers during the Second World War, the family migrates through the United States, Canada, France and Australia.
Inspired by her own family history, Messud called the novel "about the interconnectedness of our small personal lives and the great historical events that are always unfolding around us". The title is taken from William Shakespeare's As You Like It.
Messud has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. She has also received the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has been a Senior Lecturer at Harvard University since 2015.
Claire Messud lives with her family in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Photo credit: www.clairemessud.com
years of life: 8 October 1966 – present
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