Zink's second novel, Mislaid ( Ecco Press), her first under a major publisher, follows the story of a white lesbian, Peggy, later 'Meg', born in rural Virginia in the 1960s. Kirkus Reviews called it 'a brief yet masterful novel of epic breadth.' It was listed as one of the 100 notable books of 2014 by The New York Times. Reviewing it in The New York Times Robin Romm wrote 'Zink's work may be, at times, cerebral and a little distancing, but its vitality and purpose are invigorating.' and that, 'The passages about European environmental groups, government programs and methods of protest are less universal and more like amusement for insiders - more like the impromptu they started as, in other words.' Overall she compliments the book on its humor, liveliness, and critique of humanity's 'mindless consumption'. Meanwhile, The Wallcreeper was published independently in the United States in 2014 by Dorothy, a publishing project. It was Franzen's agent who finally negotiated a six-figure publishing deal for Zink's Mislaid. Franzen tried unsuccessfully to interest publishers in her 1998 novel Sailing Towards the Sunset by Avner Shats (sic). In early 2012, Zink sent Franzen her collected manuscripts. So I wrote the first part of a new novel, called The Wallcreeper, in just four days to show him that I knew what I was doing as a writer. I was so tired of Franzen saying that I should take myself seriously as a writer and I wanted to make very clear that there's a very clear distinction between taking your career seriously and taking your writing seriously. The two writers began a correspondence, and Franzen was surprised to learn that Zink had no published literary work. Knopf.Īfter fifteen years spent writing fiction exclusively for a single penpal, the Israeli postmodernist Avner Shats, Zink caught the attention of Jonathan Franzen with a letter promoting the work of the German ornithologist Martin Schneider-Jacoby and asking for his help to save birds in the Balkans. In 2022 she published Avalon, again a New York Times notable book, with Alfred A.

Zink then released Nicotine, Private Novelist and Doxology through Ecco Press. Her debut The Wallcreeper was released in the United States by the independent press Dorothy and named one of 100 notable books of 2014 by The New York Times, as was Mislaid. After being a long term penpal of Avner Shats, she came to prominence in her fifties with the help of Jonathan Franzen and her novel, Mislaid, was longlisted for the National Book Award.

Helen 'Nell' Louise Zink (born 1964) is an American writer living in Germany. College of William and Mary University of Tübingen

Private novelist nell zink