Jennifer Egan, born September 7, 1962, in Chicago and raised in San Francisco, is a celebrated American novelist and short-story writer known for her compelling narratives and intricate storytelling. Her groundbreaking novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, garnered widespread acclaim, winning the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. This novel was also celebrated as one of the best books of the decade by Time Magazine and Entertainment Weekly.

Egan's literary prowess continued with Manhattan Beach, which became a New York Times bestseller and was awarded the 2018 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. This novel was selected as New York City’s One Book One New York read. Her latest work, The Candy House, a companion to A Visit from the Goon Squad, was named one of the New York Times’s 10 Best Books of 2022 and one of President Obama’s favorite reads of the year.

In addition to her fiction, Egan has made significant contributions to journalism, frequently writing in the New York Times Magazine. Her coverage of complex social issues has been recognized with several awards, including the Carroll Kowal Journalism Award and the 2009 NAMI Outstanding Media Award for Science and Health Reporting. Her year-long reporting on street homelessness and supportive housing in New York City was published in The New Yorker in September 2023.

Throughout her career, Egan has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, such as a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, and a Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library. She has also served as the president of PEN America and is currently the Artist-in-Residence in the English Department of the University of Pennsylvania.