Jennifer Egan
A literary innovator who masterfully dissects the fractures of modern time, memory, and technology with formal daring and deep human insight.
Born 1962 (age 64)·Novelist, short story writer·Birthday: September 7·Baby Boomers
Biography
Jennifer Egan writes with the precision of a cartographer, but the territories she charts are the shifting landscapes of human consciousness across decades. Emerging in the 1990s, her work quickly established a signature blend of sharp social observation and structural experimentation. She vaulted into the literary firmament with 'A Visit from the Goon Squad,' a novel that is less a traditional narrative and more a constellation of interconnected lives orbiting the music industry. Told through perspectives that span from the 1970s to a near-future New York, and employing forms as varied as a PowerPoint presentation, the book captured the fragmenting effect of time and technology on identity. It earned her the Pulitzer Prize, a rare feat for a work of such overt formal play. Beyond her fiction, Egan has served as president of PEN America, advocating fiercely for free expression. Her subsequent novel, 'The Candy House,' revisited the world of 'Goon Squad' to explore the perils of digital memory, proving her to be one of fiction's most vital and prescient chroniclers of our digital age.
Baby Boomers
1946–1964
The largest generation in history at the time. Shaped by postwar prosperity, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and Watergate. They questioned every institution their parents built — then ran them.
Jennifer was born in 1962, placing them squarely in the Baby Boomers. The events that shaped this generation — postwar prosperity, civil rights, Vietnam, and the counterculture — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Jennifer Was Born
The biggest hits of 1962
#1 Movie
Lawrence of Arabia
Best Picture
Lawrence of Arabia
#1 TV Show
Beverly Hillbillies
Jennifer's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1962Born
Cuban Missile Crisis brings the world to the brink
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $12,800Min wage: $1.15/hrPresident: John F. Kennedy"Stranger on the Shore" — Acker BilkBest Picture: Lawrence of Arabia
1967Started school
Summer of Love in San Francisco; first Super Bowl
Gas: $0.33/galHome: $14,250Min wage: $1.40/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"To Sir, with Love" — LuluBest Picture: In the Heat of the Night
1975Became a teenager
Fall of Saigon ends the Vietnam War
Gas: $0.57/galHome: $27,600Min wage: $2.10/hrPresident: Gerald Ford"Love Will Keep Us Together" — Captain & TennilleBest Picture: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1978Could drive
First test-tube baby born
Gas: $0.63/galHome: $35,300Min wage: $2.65/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"Shadow Dancing" — Andy GibbBest Picture: The Deer Hunter
1980Could vote
John Lennon shot and killed in New York
Gas: $1.19/galHome: $47,200Min wage: $3.10/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"Call Me" — BlondieBest Picture: Ordinary People
1983Turned 21
Internet adopts TCP/IP, creating the modern internet
Gas: $1.16/galHome: $57,700Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"Every Breath You Take" — The PoliceBest Picture: Terms of Endearment
1992Turned 30
LA riots after Rodney King verdict
Gas: $1.13/galHome: $84,300Min wage: $4.25/hrPresident: George H.W. Bush"End of the Road" — Boyz II MenBest Picture: Unforgiven
2002Turned 40
Euro currency enters circulation
Gas: $1.36/galHome: $137,800Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: George W. Bush"How You Remind Me" — NickelbackBest Picture: Chicago
2012Turned 50
Curiosity rover lands on Mars; Sandy Hook shooting
Gas: $3.64/galHome: $143,200Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Barack Obama"Somebody That I Used to Know" — GotyeBest Picture: Argo
2022Turned 60
Russia invades Ukraine; Queen Elizabeth II dies
Gas: $3.97/galHome: $348,700Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Joe Biden"As It Was" — Harry StylesBest Picture: Everything Everywhere All at Once
2026Age 64 today
Gas: $3.91/galPresident: Donald Trump
Key Achievements
- Won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel 'A Visit from the Goon Squad,' which also won the National Book Critics Circle Award.
- Served as President of PEN America from 2018 to 2020, leading the organization's defense of free speech and literary expression.
- Authored 'The Candy House,' a thematic sequel to 'Goon Squad' that was a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize.
- Her journalism and long-form non-fiction have appeared in prestigious publications like The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine.
- Received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in support of her writing.
Did You Know?
The famous PowerPoint chapter in 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' was initially written for inclusion in a book by artist and designer Chris Ware.
She worked as a caterer and a private secretary while writing her first novel, 'The Invisible Circus.'
Egan is a distant relative of the legendary playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder.
She has said she does most of her writing in longhand, using a pen and notebook.
Her novel 'Look at Me' was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2001.
“Time's a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push you around?”
