Nell Freudenberger

Nell Freudenberger (born April 21, 1975 in New York City) is an American novelist, essayist, and short-story writer.

Education Freudenberger graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts and received a Master of Fine Arts from New York University.

Career Fiction Freudenberger's fiction has appeared in Granta, The Paris Review and The New Yorker. After her collection Lucky Girls was published in 2003, she received the PEN/Malamud Award, a short story prize sponsored by PEN International. When Freudenberger's novel The Dissident appeared in 2006, she received the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction.

In June 2010, Freudenberger was featured along with fellow writers Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Karen Russell, ZZ Packer, and Gary Shteyngart in The New Yorker 's "20 Under 40 Fiction" issue. Per the magazine, these authors represented "Twenty young writers who capture the inventiveness and the vitality of contemporary American fiction." The list received widespread media attention. She had a MacDowell Fellowship in 2001, 2002, and 2023.

Journalism Freudenberger's travel writing has been published in Travel + Leisure, Salon, The New Yorker, and The Telegraph Magazine. She has written book reviews for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue and The Nation.

Personal life Freudenberger is married and has two children. The family lives in Brooklyn.

Awards 2010 The New Yorker, "20 Under 40" Fiction Issue 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship 2006 Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for The Dissident 2005 Whiting Award for fiction 2004 PEN/Malamud Award for Lucky Girls

Works

Books

Short stories and essays

Freudenberger, Nell (February 2026) "The Precipice" Harper's. Vol. 352, No. 2109, February 2026.