Zoë Heller

Zoë Heller, English-born journalist and novelist, in 2007

Zoë Kate Hinde Heller (born 7 July 1965) is an English journalist and novelist.

Biography

Early life

Heller was born in St Pancras, North London, as the youngest of four children of Caroline (née Carter) and Lukas Heller, a successful screenwriter. Her father was a German Jewish immigrant and her mother was English and a Quaker.[1][2][3]

Her brother is screenwriter Bruno Heller. She attended Haverstock School in the same year as David Miliband and then studied English at St Anne's College, Oxford, before going on to Columbia University, New York where she received an MA in 1988.

Career

Heller began her career in journalism, as a feature writer for the Independent on Sunday in the UK. She later returned to New York to write for Vanity Fair and then The New Yorker. She wrote a weekly column for the Sunday Times magazine in the UK,[4] and was a columnist for the Daily Telegraph, for which she won the British Press Awards' "Columnist of the Year" in 2002.[5]

Publications

Heller has published three novels, Everything You Know (1999), Notes on a Scandal (2003), which was one of six books shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2003 and made into a film in 2006, and The Believers (2008).

In 2009, she donated the short story "What She Did On Her Summer Vacation" to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the 'Water' collection.[6]

Personal life

Zoë Heller currently lives in New York with her two daughters. She has been involved in the film industry, co-writing the screenplay for the 1991 independent film, Twenty-One.

References

  1. Philippe Naughton (28 March 2012). "UK News, World News and Opinion". Timesplus.co.uk. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
  2. "Two giants of literature — and one big question". The Jewish Chronicle. 24 June 2009. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
  3. Cohen, Patricia (26 February 2009). "Not Much Sympathy for Zoë Heller's Characters, but a Little Understanding". The New York Times.
  4. '"Sunday Times profile, literature.britishcouncil.org; accessed 31 January 2015.
  5. Press Gazette, Roll of Honour, accessed 24 July 2011
  6. "Ox-Tales". Oxfam. Retrieved 4 April 2012.

External links

Video clips