This Strange Eventful History

Claire Messud is an American author and creative writing professor. Born to a Canadian mother and a French Algerian father (on whom the characters of Barbara and François are based) Messud grew up in various countries, including the US, Canada, and Australia. She studied at Yale University and Cambridge University and has taught at various schools, including Hunter College, the University of the South, Amherst College, the University of Maryland, Yale University, Kenyon College, and the Wilson College MFA Program for Writers in North Carolina. Currently a senior lecturer at Harvard University, she’s married to author and literary critic James Wood.

Messud was drawn to literature from an early age and credits her mother with nurturing her interest in reading, especially works by female authors. She lists Djuna Barnes, Katherine Mansfield, Elizabeth Bowen, and Jean Rhys as particular influences, citing the way that each author explores themes related to gender and identity. Barnes is best known for her experimental novel Nightwood (1936), an exemplar of inter-war Modernism that delves deeply into themes related to female sexuality and women’s gender roles against the backdrop of an ever-shifting 20th century. Mansfield, also a Modernist author, is particularly known for her short stories, including