“There's the public self that we present to the outer world. There's the private self, which maybe takes more time to access. But ultimately, what I'm most interested in as a writer is a few notches below the private self.”

American fiction writer

Laura van den Berg is an American fiction writer, known for five works of fiction. Her first two collections of short stories were both shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, in 2010 and 2014. Her work has drawn recognition from major literary institutions. In 2021, she received the Strauss Livings Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters and a Guggenheim Fellowship.