Rebecca Makkai

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Rebecca Makkai
Makkai at the 2023 Texas Book Festival
Makkai at the 2023 Texas Book Festival
Born (1978-04-20) April 20, 1978 (age 46)
OccupationWriter
EducationWashington and Lee University (BA)
Middlebury College (MA)
Notable worksThe Great Believers (2018)
Website
rebeccamakkai.com

Rebecca Makkai (born April 20, 1978) is an American novelist and short story writer. She is best known for writing The Great Believers (2018) and I Have Some Questions for You (2023), which have been positively received by critics and won awards such as the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and the Libby Book Award.

Early life and education

Makkai grew up in Lake Bluff, Illinois.[1] She is the daughter of linguistics professors Valerie Becker Makkai and Ádám Makkai, a refugee to the US following the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Her paternal grandmother, Rózsa Ignácz, was an actress and novelist in Hungary.[2] Her paternal grandfather, János Makkai, was a journalist and politician and, as a member of the Hungarian Parliament, was principal parliamentary author of Hungary's Second Jewish Law of 1939, before revising his views and being imprisoned by the Gestapo.[3] His problematic legacy is a topic on which Makkai has written extensively in both fiction and essay form.[4] Makkai graduated from Lake Forest Academy and attended Washington and Lee University where she graduated with a B.A. in English.[5] She later earned a master's degree from Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English.[6]

Career

Writing

Makkai's debut novel, The Borrower, was released in June 2011.[6][7] It was a Booklist Top Ten Debut, an Indie Next pick, an O, The Oprah Magazine selection,[8] and one of Chicago's choices for best fiction of 2011.[1] It was translated into twelve languages.

Her second novel, The Hundred-Year House, is set in the Northern suburbs of Chicago, and was published by Viking Press/Penguin Random House in July 2014.[1][9] It received starred reviews in Booklist, Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. The book won the 2015 Novel of the Year award from the Chicago Writers Association and was named a best book of 2014 by BookPage.

Makkai's third novel, The Great Believers, is set during the AIDS epidemic in 1980s Chicago and was published by Viking/Penguin Random House in June 2018.[10] The Great Believers won the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction[11] and was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction.[12] It was also a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction,[13] and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize,[14] the ALA Stonewall Award,[15] and the Chicago Review of Books Award.[16]

In 2024, The New York Times ranked The Great Believers one of "The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century".[17] The novel was also ranked at number 28 in the related "Readers Pick" list.[18]

Makkai's fourth novel, I Have Some Questions for You, was published by Viking in February 2023, and it debuted at number three on the New York Times Bestseller List.

Makkai's debut short story collection, Music for Wartime, was published by Viking in June 2015. A starred and featured review in Publishers Weekly said, "Though these stories alternate in time between WWII and the present day, they all are set, as described in the story "Exposition", within "the borders of the human heart"—a terrain that their author maps uncommonly well."[19] The Kansas City Star wrote that "if any short story writer can be considered a rock star of the genre, it's Rebecca Makkai."[20]

Her short stories have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 and as well as in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009 and 2016; she received a 2017 Pushcart Prize, a 2014 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship (worth US$25,000),[21] and a 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship. Makkai's fiction has also appeared in The New Yorker,[22] Ploughshares, Tin House, The Threepenny Review, New England Review, and Shenandoah.[1][6] Her nonfiction has appeared in Harpers, Salon.com, and The New Yorker. Makkai's stories have also been featured on Public Radio International's Selected Shorts and This American Life.[23]

Teaching

Makkai has taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is on the MFA faculties of Bennington College and Northwestern University. She is the artistic director of StoryStudio Chicago.[24] Makkai has also taught at Lake Forest College[25] and held the Mackey Chair in Creative Writing at Beloit College in Wisconsin.[26]

Personal life

She has two children and lives in Lake Forest, Illinois.[27] She met her husband, Jon Freeman, at Bread Loaf.[28]

Awards and honors

Awards for Makkai's writing
Year Title Award Category Result Ref.
2017 The George Spelvin Players Pushcart Prize — Won [29]
2018 The Great Believers Chicago Review of Books Award Fiction Finalist [16]
Goodreads Choice Award for Historical Fiction Nominated—20th [30]
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Fiction Won [14]
National Book Award Fiction Finalist [12]
2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence Fiction Won [11]
Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize Fiction Won [31]
Pulitzer Prize Fiction Finalist [13]
RUSA Notable Books Fiction Selection [32][33]
Stonewall Book Award Literature Won [15]
2023 I Have Some Questions for You Goodreads Choice Awards Mystery & Thriller Nominated—9th [34]
Heartland Booksellers Award Fiction Shortlisted [35]
Libby Book Award Audiobook Won [36]
2024 Aspen Words Literary Prize — Longlisted [37]
Carol Shields Prize for Fiction — Longlisted [38][39]

Bibliography

Novels

Short story collections

  • Music for Wartime (2015, Viking)

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Rebecca Makkai, author, Chicago – Rebecca Makkai". Rebecca Makkai. Archived from the original on January 7, 2015. Retrieved December 25, 2014.
  2. ^ Garner, Dwight (July 7, 2015). "Review: Rebecca Makkai's 'Music for Wartime,' Stories With Echoes of Loss". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 18, 2019. Retrieved April 18, 2019.
  3. ^ "Makkai János – Holokauszt Emlékközpont".
  4. ^ Schneiderman, Davis (June 20, 2013). "(One Generation) Beyond Good and Evil: A Conversation with Rebecca Makkai, by Davis Schneiderman". Harper's Magazine. Archived from the original on October 7, 2024. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
  5. ^ Richardson, Tracy. "Interview with Rebecca Makkai". Shenandoah. Archived from the original on March 27, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  6. ^ a b c "Interview with Rebecca Makkai". Shenandoahliterary.org. Archived from the original on October 12, 2014. Retrieved December 25, 2014.
  7. ^ Chicago Tribune (June 21, 2011). "The Borrower By Rebecca Makkai – Chicago Tribune". chicagotribune.com. Archived from the original on March 24, 2014. Retrieved December 25, 2014.
  8. ^ "The Borrower". Oprah.com. Archived from the original on February 23, 2014. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  9. ^ "Chicago Author Spotlight: Rebecca Makkai". Chicagoist.com. Archived from the original on November 5, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  10. ^ "The Great Believers". Penguin Random House. Archived from the original on June 18, 2018. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  11. ^ a b "'The Great Believers,' 'Heavy: An American Memoir,' receive 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction". News and Press Center. January 27, 2019. Archived from the original on January 29, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2019.
  12. ^ a b Grady, Constance (October 10, 2018). "The 2018 National Book Award finalists are in. Here's the full list". Vox. Archived from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  13. ^ a b "2019 Pulitzer Prizes". Archived from the original on January 26, 2022. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  14. ^ a b "Book Prizes". Festival of Books. Archived from the original on July 3, 2019. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  15. ^ a b Admin (September 9, 2009). "Stonewall Book Awards List". Round Tables. Archived from the original on June 14, 2019. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  16. ^ a b Morgan, Adam (October 10, 2018). "The Fiction Shortlist for the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Award". Chicago Review of Books. Archived from the original on December 14, 2019. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  17. ^ "The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century". The New York Times. July 8, 2024.
  18. ^ "Readers Pick Their 100 Best Books of the 21st Century". The New York Times. July 18, 2024.
  19. ^ "Music for Wartime". Publishers Weekly. June 15, 2015. Archived from the original on January 30, 2023. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  20. ^ Pivovar, Christine (July 25, 2015). "Rebecca Makkai shows off her skill for short stories in 'Music for Wartime'". The Kansas City Star. Archived from the original on December 23, 2015. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
  21. ^ "Lecturer in English receives $25,000 literature fellowship from National Endowment for the Arts". www.lakeforest.edu. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  22. ^ "Rebecca Makkai on Serious Parody". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on June 27, 2023. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
  23. ^ "Book Review: 'The Borrower' by Rebecca Makkai". Wbez.org. Archived from the original on November 17, 2015. Retrieved December 25, 2014.
  24. ^ "Faculty of the Master of Arts in Writing". Northwestern University School of Professional Studies. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  25. ^ "Rebecca Freeman". Lake Forest College. Archived from the original on May 27, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  26. ^ "Rebecca Makkai". Beloit College. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  27. ^ Borrelli, Christopher (June 20, 2018). "Rebecca Makkai, author of Chicago-set 'The Great Believers,' knows the value of diligence". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  28. ^ Jennings, Matt (July 26, 2019). "A Conversation with Rebecca Makkai". Middlebury Magazine. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  29. ^ Henderson, Bill, ed. (2017). The Pushcart Prize XLI: Best of the Small Presses 2017 Edition. Pushcart Press. pp. 94–114. ISBN 978-1888889826.
  30. ^ "Announcing the Goodreads Choice Winner in Best Historical Fiction!". Goodreads. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  31. ^ Taylor, Elizabeth (October 11, 2019). "Rebecca Makkai's 'The Great Believers': An empathic novel worthy of the Heartland Prize". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 12, 2025.
  32. ^ Notable Books: 2019. March 15, 2019. Retrieved January 5, 2022 – via Booklist.
  33. ^ Moore, Ninah (January 27, 2019). "2018 Notable Books List: Year's best in fiction, nonfiction and poetry announced". American Library Association. Retrieved January 6, 2022.
  34. ^ "Announcing the Goodreads Choice Winner in Best Mystery & Thriller!". Goodreads. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
  35. ^ "2023 Heartland Booksellers Award". HEARTLAND FALL FORUM. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
  36. ^ "And the award goes to...The winners of the first Libby Book Awards". Libby Life blog. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
  37. ^ Anderson, Porter (November 8, 2023). "The Aspen Words Literary Prize Names Its 2024 Longlist". Publishing Perspectives. Archived from the original on November 29, 2023. Retrieved April 28, 2024.
  38. ^ Drudi, Cassandra (March 8, 2024). "Longlist announced for $150K Carol Shields Prize for Fiction". Quill & Quire.
  39. ^ "2024 Longlist". Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Retrieved December 22, 2024.
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