“I think a playful critique is good for all of us, and that's basically how I see satire functioning. But I'm not interested in a kind of contemptuous satirical vision; I try always, even when I'm knowingly being satirical, to also be humane, but I mean, let's face it: there's plenty in American life to make fun of, and we all participate in it.”

American novelist and short-story writer

Jennifer Egan is an American novelist and short-story writer. She is best known for her fiction, especially the novel A Visit from the Goon Squad, which won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. From 2018 to 2020, Egan served as president of PEN America. Her reputation rests on fiction and on work that has earned major literary recognition.