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Helen DeWitt

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Helen DeWitt
DeWitt in 2013
DeWitt in 2013
Born
Takoma Park, Maryland, U.S.
OccupationWriter
Period2000–present
GenreNovel
Website
helendewitt.com
Voice of Helen DeWitt, 2015

Helen DeWitt is an American novelist. She is the author of the novels The Last Samurai (2000) and Lightning Rods (2011) and the short story collection Some Trick (2018). In 2025, a novel which she co-wrote with Ilya Gridneff and published on her website in 2008, Your Name Here, was republished as a commercial book.

Early life and education

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Helen DeWitt was born in Takoma Park, Maryland. She grew up primarily in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador in Latin America,[1] as her parents worked in the United States diplomatic service.[citation needed]

After a year at Northfield Mount Hermon School and two short periods at Smith College,[citation needed] DeWitt studied classics at the University of Oxford, first at Lady Margaret Hall,[citation needed] and then at Brasenose College for her D.Phil., where her thesis examined the concept of propriety in ancient literary criticism.[2]

Afterwards she became a junior research fellow at Somerville College, Oxford.[3] She spent about ten years in Oxford.[4]

Career

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DeWitt is best known for her debut novel, The Last Samurai. She held a variety of jobs while struggling to finish a book, including dictionary text tagger, copytaker, Dunkin' Donuts employee, legal secretary, and working at a laundry service. During this time she reportedly attempted to finish many novels, before finally completing The Last Samurai, her 50th manuscript, in 1998.[1][5] It was published in 2000 by Talk Miramax Books.

In 1999, DeWitt had completed another novel, Lightning Rods, and later signed a contract for it with Miramax Books in 2003, but it remained unpublished and in limbo. After Miramax Books was folded into Hyperion Books in late 2007, she asked for the rights to be returned.[6][7][4][8] It was eventually published in 2011 by New Directions.

In 2005 she collaborated with Ingrid Kerma, the London-based painter, writing "limit5" for the exhibition "Blushing Brides".[citation needed]

In 2008 she published Your Name Here, which was written in collaboration with the Australian-Canadian journalist Ilya Gridneff, as a PDF on her website.[9][10]

In 2012 an excerpt from an in-progress novel set in Flin Flon, Manitoba, was published online by Open Book: Ontario at the end of an article about the novel and DeWitt's difficulties in finding a publisher.[11]

Her short story "Climbers", which explores artistic ideals and commercial realities of the writing life, was published in Harper's Magazine November 2014.[12]

In 2018, a collection of 13 of her short stories, Some Trick, was published by New Directions. It was shortlisted for the 2019 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize.[13]

DeWitt published a novella, The English Understand Wool, in 2022. The novella was published as part of a new series from New Directions Publishing, "Storybook ND", which aims to deliver "the pleasure one felt as a child reading a marvelous book from cover to cover in an afternoon".[14][15]

In 2025, her 2008 co-written novel (with Ilya Gridneff), Your Name Here, originally published on her website, was published as a commercial book by Deep Vellum and Dalkey Archive Press. It was described as a "sweeping and experimental anti-war novel".[10]

In 2026, DeWitt declined the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize as she felt unable to honour the associated "extensive promotion" commitments.[16] DeWitt extensively described it in her blog.[17] After her decline of the prize, the economist Tyler Cowen gave her a grant of the same sum.[18] Cowen described the newly established grant as:[19]

EV Arts Patronage Tranche
This is a new tranche of ad hoc awards, given out more like prizes, without applications, to writers, creatives, and intellectuals who are not supported by the current system of awards and grants, or who have been failed by such systems.

Personal life

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As reported in 2016, "DeWitt knows, in descending order of proficiency, Latin, ancient Greek, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Arabic, Hebrew, and Japanese".[4]

While in Oxford, DeWitt married classicist David Levene; they divorced after seven years. DeWitt said that "Meeting David is what made me a writer", and that he "introduced me to bridge, to poker, to statistics, things that to other people might seem completely unrelated".[4]

DeWitt had two suicide attempts.[4]

Works

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Novels and novellas

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  • DeWitt, Helen (2000). The Last Samurai. New York, London: Talk Miramax Books/Chatto & Windus. ISBN 9780786866687.
  • DeWitt, Helen; Gridneff, Ilya (2008). Your Name Here. Champaign, Illinois: Dalkey Archive Press.
  • DeWitt, Helen (2011). Lightning Rods. New York: New Directions. ISBN 9781908276117.
  • DeWitt, Helen (2022). The English Understand Wool. New York: New Directions. ISBN 9780811230070.

Short story collection

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References

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  1. 1 2 Macgowan, James (October 15, 2000). "After 50 attempts, Helen DeWitt's brainy prose gets brawny cash advances". The Ottawa Citizen. CanWest Interactive.
  2. ↑ DeWitt, Helen (1987). Quo virtus? The Concept of Propriety in Ancient Literary Criticism (D.Phil.). University of Oxford. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  3. ↑ Reports of the President and the Treasurer. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 2006.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Lorentzen, Christian (July 13, 2016). "When Will Helen DeWitt Be Recognized As One of the Great American Novelists?". Vulture. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  5. ↑ The Paris Review (June 7, 2016). "Helen DeWitt: My First Time". The Paris Review. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Novels From the Edge: For Helen DeWitt, the Publishing World Is a High-Stakes Game". Observer. December 21, 2011. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  7. ↑ "an interview with helen dewitt | if:book". December 27, 2008. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  8. ↑ "The Screwer and the Screwed | Lauren Oyler". The Baffler. April 30, 2018. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  9. ↑ Turner, Jenny (September 11, 2008). "Move Your Head and the Picture Changes". London Review of Books. Vol. 30, no. 17. ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  10. 1 2 Bergman, Jess (December 16, 2025). "Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff's Sweeping Anti-War Novel". The Nation. Retrieved January 1, 2026.
  11. ↑ Colangelo, Jeremy (June 12, 2012). "Helen DeWitt on Writing, Flin Flon and the Canadian Personality". Open Book Ontario. Archived from the original on February 19, 2014.
  12. ↑ Harper's Magazine, Volume 329, No. 1974.
  13. ↑ "Announcing the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists". PEN America. January 15, 2019. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  14. ↑ Arrowsmith, Charles (September 30, 2022). "Review: The author of a literary classic, Helen DeWitt tries a novella on for size". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  15. ↑ Maloney, Iain (July 21, 2022). "Independent publisher gives short stories their due with 'Storybook ND' series". The Japan Times. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  16. ↑ Creamer, Ella (April 9, 2026). "Helen DeWitt turns down $175k Windham-Campbell prize over promotional requirements". The Guardian. Retrieved April 16, 2026.
  17. ↑ Founders., Its Generous (April 8, 2026). "We lose again: Windham-Campbell Prize manqué". paperpools. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
  18. ↑ Murphy, Justin (April 15, 2026). "The Great Schizo-Autist War". RealClearBooks. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
  19. ↑ Cowen, Tyler (April 13, 2026). "EV Arts Patronage Tranche". Marginal REVOLUTION. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
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