Audrey Niffenegger

Audrey Niffenegger
Audrey Niffenegger in 2009
Born	June 13, 1963 (1963-06-13) (age 48) South Haven, Michigan, United States
Occupation	Novelist, Artist
Nationality	American
Period	2003-present
Genres	Fiction
Influences Louise Fitzhugh
audreyniffenegger.com

Audrey Niffenegger (born June 13, 1963 in South Haven, Michigan) is an American writer, artist and academic.

Career

Writing

A film version of Niffenegger's debut novel, The Time Traveler's Wife (2003), starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, was released in August 2009. She has also written a graphic novel, or "novel in pictures" as Niffenegger calls it, called The Three Incestuous Sisters. This book tells the story of three unusual sisters who live in a seaside house. The book has been compared to the work of Edward Gorey.

Another graphic novel, The Adventuress, was released on September 1, 2006. The 2004 short story 'The Night Bookmobile' is currently being serialised in 'Visual Novel' format in The Guardian.^[1]

In March 2009, Niffenegger sold her second novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, for an advance of $5 million to Charles Scribner's Sons, a unit of Simon & Schuster, after a fiercely contested auction.^[2] The book was released on 1 October 2009^[3] and is set in London's Highgate Cemetery where, during research for the book, Niffenegger acted as a tour guide.^[4]

She is currently working on a third novel called The Chinchilla Girl in Exile, about a girl called Lizzie Varo, who suffers from hypertrichosis (excessive body hair).^[5]

Art and academia

She is also a professor in the Interdisciplinary Book Arts MFA Program at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. She is the founding member of T3 or Text 3, an artist and writer's group that also performs and exhibits in Chicago.

Niffenegger is also a Faculty member at the North Shore Art League where she teaches the Intermediate & Advanced Printmaking Seminar.^[6]

Niffenegger is an alumna of the Ragdale Foundation, where she is also a board member. She described herself as "somewhere in the spectrum of agnosticism and atheism" and ascribed her disbelief to her Catholic background.^[7]

Bibliography

Visual books

• The Spinster (1986)
• Aberrant Abecedarium (1986)
• The Murderer^[8]
• Spring^[8]

Novels

• The Time Traveler's Wife (2003)
• Her Fearful Symmetry (2009)

Visual novels

• The Three Incestuous Sisters (2005)
• The Adventuress (2006)

Short stories

• "The Night Bookmobile" (2004)
• "Jakob Wywialowski and the Angels" (2004)
• "Prudence: The Cautionary Tale of a Picky Eater" in the book Poisonous Plants at Table (2006)

References

1. ^ A graphic novel from Audrey Niffenegger: The Night Bookmobile
2. ^ Audrey Niffenegger Receives $5 Million Advance for Second Novel
3. ^ Allfree, Claire (2009-10-01). "Niffenegger goes on a timely journey". Metro. http://www.metro.co.uk/metrolife/books/article.html?Niffenegger_goes_on_a_timely_journey&in_article_id=745977&in_page_id=28. Retrieved 2009-10-03. 
4. ^ Niffenegger, Audrey (2009-10-03). "Audrey Niffenegger on Highgate Cemetery". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/oct/03/audrey-niffenegger-highgate-cemetery-novel. Retrieved 2009-10-03. 
5. ^ Official Website FAQs
6. ^ NSAL : North Shore Art League
7. ^ Soriano, César G. (2009-10-05). "Niffenegger finds 'Symmetry' in death for second novel". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2009-09-30-niffenegger-symmetry_N.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-07. 
8. ^ ^{a b} Audrey Niffenegger - biography, plus book reviews & excerpts

External links

• Audrey Niffenegger, Her Site, Audrey Niffenegger's website
• Interview with Audrey Niffenegger, December 2008
• Works by or about Audrey Niffenegger in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Printworks Gallery, Art gallery representing Audrey Niffenegger
• Audrey Niffenegger at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Writer Unboxed 3/06 about craft, the process of writing and editing, Time Traveler's Wife, The Three Incestuous Sisters, Her Fearful Symmetry, more.
• [1] Feature-length radio interview with KGNU Claudia Cragg discussing 'Her Fearful Symmetry'
• Audrey Niffenegger Papers at Newberry Library

Persondata
Name	Niffenegger, Audrey
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1963-06-13
Place of birth	South Haven, Michigan, United States
Date of death
Place of death