Siri Hustvedt

Siri Hustvedt is a novelist, essayist, and poet known for her contributions to contemporary literature, neuroscience, and psychoanalysis. Hustvedt is the author of a book of poetry, seven novels, two essay collections, and several works of nonfiction. Of Norwegian origin, she graduated in history from St. Olaf College and earned a doctorate in English literature from Columbia University, where her dissertation, "Figures of Dust: A Reading of Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend," examined Dickens' use of pronouns, metaphor, and images of fragmentation as they relate to identity—a theme that recurs throughout her fiction and nonfiction.

After completing her doctorate, Hustvedt turned to fiction, publishing her first novel, "The Blindfold." Two sections of this novel appeared as stories in literary magazines and were later reprinted in Best American Short Stories. Her work has been translated into more than 30 languages. Hustvedt gained international recognition with her third book, "What I Loved," and both "What I Loved" and "The Summer Without Men" became international bestsellers. Her novel "The Blazing World" was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. Other notable works include "The Enchantment of Lily Dahl," "A Plea for Eros," "The Sorrows of an American," "The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves," "Living, Thinking, Looking," and "Memories of the Future." Her book "Ghost Stories" explores themes of grief, memory, and love, incorporating personal writings such as letters, notes, and an unfinished book addressed to a grandson.

Hustvedt's essays and fiction often examine the intersections of philosophy, psychoanalysis, neuroscience, and visual art. Her interdisciplinary scholarship draws from literature, visual art, psychiatry, neuroscience, and epigenetics. She has lectured at international conferences on neuroethics, neurophysiology, philosophy, art, and memory, and has published in scientific and academic journals. Hustvedt delivered the Schelling lecture on aesthetics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and has spoken at the Prado in Madrid and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She also delivered the annual Sigmund Freud lecture in Vienna.

A significant personal experience occurred when Hustvedt experienced violent shaking while delivering a memorial speech for her father, a symptom that became the subject of her book "The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves." The book offers both a personal account and an exploration of diagnosis through the perspectives of medical history, neurology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, neuroscience, and philosophy. Hustvedt was later appointed lecturer in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, where she leads a seminar in narrative psychiatry for psychiatric residents and junior faculty. Her work continues to explore the intersections of psychoanalysis, art, philosophy, neuroscience, psychiatry, and the history of medicine.

Hustvedt has received several awards, including the Gabarron Prize for Thought and Humanities, the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature, an American Academy of Arts and Letters prize, and the Sigourney Award for contributions to psychoanalytic thought. She holds honorary doctorates from the University of Oslo, Université Stendhal-Grenoble in France, and Gutenberg University-Mainz in Germany. Hustvedt is recognized as a leading voice in literature and interdisciplinary scholarship, challenging readers to reconsider the boundaries between self, body, and world.