Jonathan Franzen

Franzen grew up in the St. Louis suburb of Webster Groves, studied German at Swarthmore, and spent a Fulbright year in Berlin before his first two novels, The Twenty-Seventh City and Strong Motion, earned respectful reviews and modest sales. He wrote an influential 1996 essay lamenting the novel's cultural marginalization, a preoccupation he then answered directly with The Corrections.

That 2001 novel's sudden success collided famously with Oprah Winfrey's book club: Franzen voiced ambivalence in interviews about the club's corporate branding, and Winfrey rescinded his invitation to appear, a public spat that became one of the era's defining literary controversies. He later returned to Oprah's club without incident when she selected Freedom in 2010.

An avid birder, he has also written widely on conservation and, controversially, on climate change, alongside a steady output of doorstop family novels.