Editing Jeffrey Eugenides (section)

==Biography==
Jeffrey Kent Eugenides was born in [[Detroit]] on March 8, 1960. He is of Greek descent through his father and English and Irish descent through his mother. He has two older brothers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/Authors/7682/jeffrey-eugenides|title=Jeffrey Eugenides&nbsp;– Harper Collins Author Profile|work=HarperCollins UK|access-date=10 October 2014|archive-date=1 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201103332/http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/authors/7682/jeffrey-eugenides|url-status=dead}}</ref> He attended [[Grosse Pointe, Michigan|Grosse Pointe]]'s private [[University Liggett School]] and then [[Brown University]] (where he became friends with contemporary [[Rick Moody]]).<ref name="theparisreview.org">{{cite journal|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6117/the-art-of-fiction-no-215-jeffrey-eugenides|title=Jeffrey Eugenides, The Art of Fiction No. 215|journal=The Paris Review|author=James Gibbons|date=Winter 2011|volume=Winter 2011|issue=199}}</ref> He graduated from Brown in 1982 after taking a year off to travel across Europe, during which time he also volunteered with [[Mother Teresa]] in [[Calcutta]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/09/25/jeffrey-eugenides-on-his-new-novel-the-marriage-plot.html|title=The Daily Beast&nbsp;– Eugenides Returns!|publisher=Thedailybeast.com|access-date=10 October 2014}}</ref> Of his decision to study at Brown, he said, "I chose Brown largely in order to study with [[John Hawkes (novelist)|John Hawkes]], whose work I admired. I entered the honors program in English, which forced me to study the entire English tradition, beginning with ''[[Beowulf]]''. I felt that since I was going to try to add to the tradition, I had better know something about it."<ref name="theparisreview.org"/> In 1986, he earned an [[Master of Arts|M.A.]] in English and [[Creative Writing]] from [[Stanford University]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jeffrey Eugenides reads this evening at CEMEX Auditorium |url=https://library.stanford.edu/blogs/stanford-libraries-blog/2013/02/jeffrey-eugenides-reads-evening-cemex-auditorium |access-date=2022-04-26 |date=2013-02-25|website=Stanford Libraries |language=en}}</ref> Eugenides knew he wanted to be a writer from a relatively early age, stating, <blockquote>"I decided very early; during my junior year of high school. We read ''[[A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man]]'' that year, and it had a big effect on me, for reasons that seem quite amusing to me now. I'm half Irish and half Greek—my mother's family were [[Kentucky|Kentuckians]], Southern [[Hillbilly|hillbillies]], and my paternal grandparents immigrants from [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]]—and, for that reason, I identified with [[Stephen Dedalus]]. Like me, he was bookish, good at academics, and possessed an 'absurd name, an ancient Greek'. [...] I do remember thinking [...] that to be a writer was the best thing a person could be. It seemed to promise maximum alertness to life. It seemed holy to me, and almost religious."<ref name="theparisreview.org" /> </blockquote>Of his earliest literary influences, he cited "the great [[modernist]]s. [[James Joyce|Joyce]], [[Marcel Proust|Proust]], [[William Faulkner|Faulkner]]. From these I went on to discover [[Robert Musil|Musil]], [[Virginia Woolf|Woolf]], and others, and soon my friends and I were reading [[Thomas Pynchon|Pynchon]] and [[John Barth]]. My generation grew up backward. We were weaned on experimental writing before ever reading much of the nineteenth-century literature the [[Modernism|modernists]] and [[Postmodernism|postmodernists]] were reacting against."<ref name="theparisreview.org" />

Eugenides was raised in Detroit and cites the influence of the city and his high school experiences on his writings. He has said that he has "a perverse love" of his birthplace: "I think most of the major elements of American history are exemplified in Detroit, from the triumph of the automobile and the assembly line to the blight of racism, not to mention the music, [[Motown]], the [[MC5]], house, techno."<ref name="Foer">{{cite interview|last=Eugenides |first=Jeffrey |interviewer=[[Jonathan Safran Foer|Foer, Jonathan Safran]] |title=Jeffrey Eugenides |url=http://bombsite.com/issues/81/articles/2519 |publisher=[[Bomb (magazine)|Bomb]] |year=2002 |access-date=2011-03-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100308002123/http://bombsite.com/issues/81/articles/2519 |archive-date=2010-03-08 |url-status=live }}</ref> He also says he has been "haunted" by the decline of Detroit.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/video/books/1194840219862/a-conversation-with-jeffrey-eugenides.html |title=A Conversation with Jeffrey Eugenides&nbsp;– Interview|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=15 May 2009|access-date=2015-03-01}}</ref> In 1983, after graduating from Brown, he moved to [[San Francisco]] with the intention of becoming a writer and lived on [[Haight Street]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hughes |first=Evan |date=October 7, 2011 |title=Is 'The Marriage Plot' by Jeffrey Eugenides Based in Reality? -- New York Magazine - Nymag |url=https://nymag.com/arts/books/features/jeffrey-eugenides-2011-10/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231003064623/https://nymag.com/arts/books/features/jeffrey-eugenides-2011-10/ |archive-date=October 3, 2023 |access-date=July 30, 2024 |website=New York Magazine |language=en}}</ref>

In 1986, he received the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]] [[Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting|Nicholl Fellowship]] for his story "Here Comes Winston, Full of the Holy Spirit." After living a few years in [[San Francisco]], he moved to Brooklyn, New York and worked as secretary for the [[Academy of American Poets]]. While in New York he made friends with numerous similarly struggling writers, including [[Jonathan Franzen]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Hughes |first=Evan |url=https://nymag.com/arts/books/features/jeffrey-eugenides-2011-10/ |title=Is 'The Marriage Plot' by Jeffrey Eugenides Based in Reality? – New York Magazine |publisher=Nymag.com |date=2011-10-09 |access-date=2015-03-01}}</ref>

From 1999 to 2004, Eugenides lived in [[Berlin]], where he moved after being awarded a grant from the [[German Academic Exchange Service]] to write in Berlin for a year.<ref>[http://www.daad.de/alumni/de/4.2.1_03.html "Jeffrey Eugenides"], DAAD.  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206221423/http://www.daad.de/alumni/de/4.2.1_03.html|date=February 6, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Goldstein |first=Bill |date=2003-01-01 |title=A Novelist Goes Far Afield but Winds Up Back Home Again |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/01/books/a-novelist-goes-far-afield-but-winds-up-back-home-again.html |access-date=2022-04-26 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Since 2007, he has lived in [[Princeton, New Jersey]], where he moved after he joined the faculty of [[Princeton University]]'s Program in Creative Writing.<ref name="Brown">{{cite news|title=Jeffrey Eugenides: Enduring love |author=Brown, Mick |author-link=Mick Brown (journalist) |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=London |date=2008-01-05 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3670336/Jeffrey-Eugenides-Enduring-love.html |access-date=2010-04-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201175948/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3670336/Jeffrey-Eugenides-Enduring-love.html |archive-date=2010-12-01 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ratcliffe |first=Michael J. |date=2007-09-19 |title=Prize-winning author joins Princeton faculty |url=https://www.nj.com/timesupdates/2007/09/prizewinning_author_joins_prin.html |access-date=2022-04-26 |website=nj |language=en}}</ref>

Of teaching creative writing, Eugenides remarked in an interview with ''[[The Paris Review]]'', "I tell my students that when you write, you should pretend you're writing the best letter you ever wrote to the smartest friend you have. That way, you'll never dumb things down. You won't have to explain things that don't need explaining. You'll assume an intimacy and a natural shorthand, which is good because readers are smart and don't wish to be condescended to. I think about the reader. I care about the reader. Not 'audience.' Not 'readership.' Just the reader."<ref name="theparisreview.org"/>

In 2018, Eugenides joined [[New York University]]'s Creative Writing Program as a [[Academic tenure|tenured]] full professor and the [[Lewis Glucksman|Lewis and Loretta Glucksman]] Professor in American Letters.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jeffrey Eugenides joins the NYU Creative Writing Program faculty |url=https://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/departments/cwp/program-news.html |access-date=2022-04-26 |website=as.nyu.edu}}</ref>

Eugenides met his former wife, photographer and sculptor Karen Yamauchi, at the [[MacDowell (artists' residency and workshop)|MacDowell]] artist's program.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Donadio |first=Rachel |date=2006-08-20 |title=What I Did at Summer Writers' Camp |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/books/review/20donadio.html |access-date=2022-04-26 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> They got married in 1995 and later had a daughter named Georgia Eugenides.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Morris |first=Linda |date=2011-10-07 |title=Interview: Jeffrey Eugenides |url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/interview-jeffrey-eugenides-20111006-1la5v.html |access-date=2022-04-26 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-09-27 |title=All you need to know about Jeffrey Eugenides |url=https://www.athensinsider.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-jeffrey-eugenides/ |access-date=2022-04-26 |website=Athens Insider |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=ALM |title=SACRIFICE By Georgia Eugenides {{!}} Adelaide Literary Magazine |url=https://adelaidemagazine.org/2017/07/17/sacrifice-by-georgia-eugenides/ |date=2017-07-17|access-date=2022-04-26 |language=en-GB}}</ref>

After being raised in a nominally Greek Orthodox household, in 2022 Eugenides was received into the [[Catholic Church]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 8, 2024 |title=People in the Pews - Jeffery Eugenides |url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/619d12229adff437c41c67e7/t/66dc7841a21a1e276c12c686/1725724737817/Newsletter_September+8%2C+2024.pdf |website=Saint Joseph's in Greenwich Village}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=September 2024}}