“I'm Turkish-American; I was a freshman at Harvard in 1995 and 96. I did teach English in Hungary in the summer of 1996. I'm an autobiographical writer in the sense that whether in fiction or nonfiction, the issues and relationships and phenomena and problems I'm most interested in exploring are the ones I've experienced personally.”

American author, academic, and journalist

Elif Batuman is an American author, academic, and journalist. She writes fiction and nonfiction, and is known for The Possessed, The Idiot, and Either/Or. Her work spans memoir, the novel, and magazine journalism. She is a staff writer for The New Yorker, and her books include The Possessed (2010), The Idiot (2017), a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and Either/Or (2022).