Elif Batuman

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born

New York City , The United States

gender

female

website

http://www.elifbatuman.com/

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Elif Batuman (born in 1977, in New York City) is an American author, academic, and journalist. Born in New York to Turkish parents, she grew up in New Jersey. She graduated from Harvard College, and received her doctorate in comparative literature from Stanford University, where she taught. Batuman is currently the writer-in-residence at Koç University. While in graduate school, Batuman studied the Uzbek language in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Her dissertation, titled "The Windmill and the Giant: Double-Entry Bookkeeping in the Novel," is about the process of social research and solitary construction undertaken by novelists. In 2007, she was the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. In February, 2010, she published her first book,...more

73 posts
Elif Batuman's Blog

Elif Batuman isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but she does have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from her feed.

THE FINAL PROBLEM

Loyal readers! I have been greatly moved by the outpourings of support for my blog, and of execration for Twitter. I feel like a tiny bit like Arthur Conan Doyle after he killed off Sherlock Holmes.

“I have been much blamed for doing [Holmes] to death,” Conan Doyle said… “but I hold that it was not murder, but justifiable homicide in self-defense, since, if I had not killed him, he would certai...

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Published on April 13, 2012 06:12 • 3 views

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Books by Elif Batuman

Average rating: 3.58 · 1221 ratings · 374 reviews · 5 distinct works

	The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who Read Them 357 avg rating — 1210 ratings — published 2010 — 12 editions	My rating:
	N+1, Number Nine: Bad Money by Elif Batuman, Juan Villoro, Sam Lipsyte (Goodreads Author) 420 avg rating — 10 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	n+1, Number Four: Reconstruction by n+1, Stephen Burt (Goodreads Author), Elif Batuman 408 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2006 — 2 editions	My rating:
	n+1, Number 2: Happiness by n+1, Daniel Smith, Keith Gessen 418 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2005 — 2 editions	My rating:
	N+1, Number Seven: Correction by Frederick Seidel, Ceridwen Dovey, Thomas Bernhard 412 avg rating — 16 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by Elif Batuman

“I didn't care about truth; I cared about beauty. It took me many years--it took the experience of lived time--to realize that they really are the same thing.”
― Elif Batuman, The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who Read Them

tags: beauty , truth

6 people liked it

“A few times I saw a chicken walking around importantly, like some kind of a regional manager.”
― Elif Batuman, The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who Read Them

tags: humor

5 people liked it

“What does literature do better than anything else? It provides a detailed representation of the inner experience of being alive in a given time and place.”
― Elif Batuman

tags: literature , neuro-lit-crit , theory

3 people liked it

See all Elif Batuman's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Bookish: 22April11	40	35	24. April, 09:38 Uhr
Bookish: W11 - Completed Tasks	302	87	30. April, 23:56 Uhr
The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2011 Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS)	2898	731	31. Mai, 21:01 Uhr
Listomania: Russian Book recommendations by Elif Batuman	1	5	03. Juli, 12:01 Uhr
Around the World ...: Russia	7	37	05. Oktober, 14:53 Uhr
The Imprinted Lif...: hello, bonjour, 你好, здравствуйте!, hallo, γειά σου, ciao, こんにちは, 여보세요, olá!, hola,...	151	36	15. Mai, 22:59 Uhr

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