Nell Zink

Nell Zink (USA/Germany)

Zink was born in 1964 in California, USA, and raised in Virginia. She has worked as a construction worker, secretary, waitress, technical writer, and translator, before earning her PhD in Media Studies. Over the years, she has moved between Washington, Jersey City, Philadelphia, and Tel Aviv. In Tel Aviv she met the writer Avner Shats, with whom she developed a long and prolific literary friendship. She published her debut novel, The Wallcreeper, at the age of fifty, following a correspondence with the novelist Jonathan Franzen. The highly acclaimed novel was named one of the 100 notable books of 2014 by The New York Times. Her second novel, Mislaid (2015), was longlisted for the National Book Award. Her third novel, Nicotine, will appear in October 2016. She currently lives in Bad Belzig, a town near Berlin, Germany.