Adam Haslett
Wellesley High School Author: Adam Haslett
Adam Haslett has twice been a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his books of fiction, and has been heralded by The Wall Street Journal as “one of the country’s most talented writers.”
After graduating from WHS in 1988, he received a B.A. in English from Swarthmore College, an M.F.A. in creative writing from Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and a J.D. from Yale University. His debut collection of short stories, You Are Not A Stranger Here, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, was a New York Times bestseller, and was named by Time Magazine “one of the five best books of the year.” It was reviewed as “a beautifully written collection of short stories that explore mental illness, death, depression, homosexuality, and how we experience our own pain, as well as the pain of others.”
Haslett’s first novel, Union Atlantic, noted for being “the portrait of the culture of impunity that led to the Great Recession,” was published just as the 2008 financial crisis began and helped give insight into it. The book was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize, and won the Lambda Literary Award.
He received the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, and was named New York Magazine’s “Writer of the Year.”
Imagine Me Gone, his astoundingly well received second novel, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, whose judges described it as “the quiet and compassionate saga of a family whose world is shaped by mental illness and the challenges and joys of caring for each other.” It was also a finalist for the National Book Award, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was named one of the 20 best novels of the decade by Literary Hub. A reviewer noted, “with his striking emotional precision and lively, inventive language, Adam Haslett has given us something rare: a novel with the power to change how we see the most important people in our lives.”