Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Talya Zax April 27, 2017
If Granta Magazine is to be trusted, many of the most promising voices in American fiction are Jewish.
The literary journal’s 2017 list of the best American novelists under 40, the most recent installation of its once-per-decade assessment, includes Joshua Cohen, Sana Krasikov, Rachel B. Glaser, and Ben Lerner.
Other members of the 21-person list include Yaa Gyasi, winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s 2016 John Leonard Award and Emma Cline, a finalist for the same honor.
Previous recipients of the honor have included Gary Shteyngart, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, Dara Horn and Anthony Doerr.
Cohenand Krasikov have both previously written for the Forward. Lerner, a recipient of a 2015 MacArthur “Genius” Award, was named to the 2015 Forward 50.
“For the first time ever, there are more women than men on the list: twelve to nine,” Granta publisher and editor Sigrid Rausing wrote in an introduction to the issue announcing the list. “In 2007, immigrant writers were more prominent: seven had been born or raised in other countries. This time, only four of the writers were born abroad,” she added.
To sample the novelists’ work, access the digital issue here.
Correction: This story has been updated to remove references to Lauren Groff, who is not Jewish.
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