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Nell Zink

b. 1964

American writer and media scholar

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About Nell Zink

Born 1964. Nell Zink is an American writer, translator and novelist.

Personal life Zink was born in California in 1964 and raised in rural Virginia, a setting she draws on in Mislaid.

In 1993, while living in Hoboken, New Jersey, Zink founded a zine called Animal Review, which ran until 1997 and "featured submissions and interviews with punk musicians about their pets, from King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp writing about his rabbit Beaton Bunnerius Bun, to Jon Langford, of British punk band The Mekons, discussing his loach fish." Zink has worked as a secretary at Colgate-Palmolive and as a technical writer in Tel Aviv. She has worked in construction, waited tables, and as a secretary before working as a translator. "There's never a market for true art," Zink told an interviewer from The Paris Review, "so my main concern was always to have a job that didn't require me to write or think." She lives in Bad Belzig. On May 8, 1990, she eloped with Benjamin A. Burck in a "very simple civil ceremony" at the Henrico County Courthouse in Richmond, Virginia; they divorced in 1996. That year she married the Israeli composer and poet Zohar Eitan. Nicotine (304 pages, Ecco Press, 2016, ) Private Novelist (336 pages, Ecco Press, 2016, ) Doxology (416 pages, Ecco Press, 2019, ) Avalon (224 pages, Alfred A. Knopf, 2022, ) Sister Europe (195 pages, Alfred A. Knopf, 2025, )

Short fiction

Zink, Nell (2017). "Bonebreaker". Harper's, June 2017. Zink, Nell (2019). "Marmalade Sky". Harper's, July 2019.

Essays

Zink, Nell (2019). "The Bird Angle". Harper's, November 2019. Zink, Nell (2020). "This Babushka Has Talons". n+1, January 2020.

Liner notes Two Originals of Tom Liwa, 2002

Critical studies and reviews

Schwartz, Madeleine (September 2019). "Nell Zink's Satire Raises the Stakes". The New Yorker. September 2, 2019 Issue.

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Important facts

Born
1964, California
Birth century
Nationality
Education
College of William & Mary, University of Tübingen, Stuart Hall School, College of William and Mary
Awards
Guggenheim Fellowship
Also known as
Helen Zink

People in Nell Zink's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Nell Zink's

Frequently asked questions

Who is Nell Zink?

American writer and media scholar

When was Nell Zink born?

Nell Zink was born in 1964 in California.

What is Nell Zink's occupation?

Nell Zink is a writer, translator and novelist.

What nationality is Nell Zink?

Nell Zink is American.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Nell Zink

· Wikidata: Q19668352

· DBpedia: Nell Zink

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Nell Zink. https://biography.guide/nell-zink/

MLA: "Nell Zink." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/nell-zink/.

Chicago: "Nell Zink." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/nell-zink/.

Data last updated: 2026-09-20 · Spot an error? Report a correction.

Portrait: Wikimedia Commons · author & licence

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