Background

Erin Morgenstern was born on July 8, 1978, in Marshfield, Massachusetts, United States. Her mother was a librarian so Erin read a lot in her childhood.

Education

While studying in school, Erin Morgenstern wrote little random things but never really thought of herself as a writer. After school, she attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She studied playwriting in college but never finished any play. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2000.

Career

Before becoming a full-time writer, Erin Morgenstern had some office jobs. From 2003, she has participated in National Novel Writing Month and wrote what became a book The Night Circus. She was rejected by thirty literary agents and as a result, she signed with Inkwell Management in May 2010. In 2011 her first book The Night Circus was published. It is a phantasmagorical fairy tale of magic and romance set in an ahistorical late 19th century London. The book has drawn a comparison with the Harry Potter series, as well as the works of Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, Susanna Clarke, and Steven Millhauser.

Morgenstern's second and most recent novel is The Starless Sea (2019). It's a timeless love story set in a secret underground world - a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea. The core of the novel is a simple story about a young man who wants to know his fate, these other strands make such a complex tapestry that the images blur and warp.

In addition to her writing and speaking, Erin Morgenstern also paints and runs a blog.

Achievements

• Erin Morgenstern won the 2012 Alex Award from the American Library Association and the 2012 Locus Award for Best First Novel for The Night Circus. This book was published in more than a dozen languages and spent seven weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Starless Sea

    (Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont whe...)

    2019
  • The Night Circus

    (The circus arrives without warning. No announcements prec...)

    2012

Views

Quotations: "I think I’ve always been a storyteller in one way or another. I think the theatre background gave me a good grounding in telling other people’s stories, and then it took some experimenting in paint and words to figure out how best to tell my own."

"My world-building is likely somewhat unconventional, as I am either blessed or cursed by the fact that imaginary worlds spring nearly fully-formed into my head and I explore and excavate more than I build."

"The finest of pleasures are always the unexpected ones."

"People see what they wish to see. And in most cases, what they are told that they see."

"Secrets have power. And that power diminishes when they are shared, so they are best kept and kept well. Sharing secrets, real secrets, important ones, with even one other person, will change them. Writing them down is worse, because who can tell how many eyes might see them inscribed on paper, no matter how careful you might be with it. So it's really best to keep your secrets when you have them, for their own good, as well as yours."

"Life takes us to unexpected places sometimes. The future is never set in stone, remember that."

Personality

Erin Morgenstern mostly writes in Scrivener, or in fountain pen on unlined paper. Her favorite books are The Secret History by Donna Tartt, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld, Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, and other.

Interests

• painting, playing video games

Connections

Erin Morgenstern married Peter Canisius, Jr. on October 13, 2006. The couple separated in 2011 and divorced in 2013. On July 2, 2014, she married a man named Adam.

Ex-husband:

Peter Canisius Jr.