Idra Novey

Idra Novey is an American novelist, poet, and translator. She translates from Portuguese, Spanish, and Persian and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

She grew up in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, with 3 siblings. She graduated from Barnard College, and from Columbia University.

She is the author of the novels Those Who Knew (2018) and Ways to Disappear (2016).

Her poetry books include Exit, Civilian (2011) and The Next Country (2008).

She is the translator of The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector, On Elegance While Sleeping by Viscount Lascano Tegui, Birds for a Demolition by Manoel de Barros, and The Clean Shirt of It.

Her fiction and poetry have been translated into ten languages, and she has received awards from Poets & Writers, the Poetry Foundation, the Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize, and the National Endowment of the Arts.

Novels

• Those Who Knew (Viking Books, 2018) ISBN 9780525560432
• Ways to Disappear (Little, Brown & Company, 2016) ISBN 9780316298506

Full-length Poetry Collections

• Exit, Civilian: Poems. University of Georgia Press. 2012. ISBN 978-0-8203-4348-8.
• The Next Country Alice James Books, 2008. ISBN 9781882295715, OCLC 216936879

Chapbooks

• The Next Country (Poetry Society of America, 2005)

Translations

• The Passion According to G.H., by Clarice Lispector New Directions, 2012; Penguin Modern Classics, 2014. ISBN 9780141197357, OCLC 881059869
• On Elegance While Sleeping, by Emilio Lascano Tegui (Dalkey Archive, 2010. ISBN 9781564786043, OCLC 773365969
• Birds for a Demolition, by Manoel de Barros Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2010. ISBN 9780887485237, OCLC 549145813
• The Clean Shirt of It, by Paulo Henriques Britto BOA Editions, Ltd., 2007. ISBN 9781929918935, OCLC 176857627

Short Stories

• "The Man from the Ad" (Guernica Magazine, 2011)
• "The Specialist" (StoryQuarterly, 2015)

Selected Poems

• "Still Life With Invisible Canoe" (Academy of American Poets, 2015)
• "On Returning to My Hometown in 2035" (Poetry Foundation, 2014)
• "The Duck Shit at Clarion Creek" (Poetry Foundation, 2014)
• "House-Sitting With Approaching Fire" (Guernica Magazine, 2014)
• "The Visitor" (Poetry Foundation, 2012)
• "La Prima Victoria" (Poetry Foundation, 2012)

• 2017 Sami Rohr Prize, for Ways to Disappear
• 2016 Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize, for Ways to Disappear
• 2016 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction (finalist), for Ways to Disappear
• 2016 Discover Great New Writers Pick, Barnes & Noble, for Ways to Disappear
• 2011 National Poetry Series, for Exit, Civilian
• 2011 Best Translated Book Award (shortlisted), for On Elegance While Sleeping
• 2009 NEA Literature Fellowship for Translation
• 2007 Kinereth Gensler Award, for The Next Country
• 2007 PEN Translation Fund Grant from PEN American Center, for The Clean Shirt of It
• 2005 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Series Fellowship, for The Next Country

• Official website: www.idranovey.com