Wikipedia

Rachel Heng

Rachel Heng (born 1988) is a Singaporean novelist and the author of The Great Reclamation and literary dystopian novel Suicide Club. Her short fiction has been published in many literary journals including The New Yorker, Glimmer Train, Tin House, and the Minnesota Review. Her fiction has received recognition from the Pushcart Prize, Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence, the New American Voices Award by the Institute for Immigration Research in US,[1] and she has been profiled by the BBC, Electric Literature and other publications. Her second novel, The Great Reclamation, was published by Riverhead Books in March 2023.[2][3]

Rachel Heng
Reading at Fall for the Book, 12 October 2023
Reading at Fall for the Book, 12 October 2023
BornSingapore
OccupationWriter
EducationBA (Comparative Literature), Columbia University; MFA (Fiction), The University of Texas at Austin
Website
rachelhengqp.com

Biography

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Rachel Heng majored in Comparative Literature at Columbia University, graduating in 2011.[4] She then worked in the private equity industry in London.[5] She received a James A. Michener Fellowship to pursue a MFA in fiction and screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin's Michener Center for Writers.[6]

Works

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Heng's second novel The Great Reclamation was published by Riverhead in March 2023. It won the New American Voices Award 2023[7] and was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence 2024,[8] as well as being named a New York Times Editors' Choice[9] and a 'Best Book of 2023 So Far' by The New Yorker[10] and Amazon Books.[11]

Her first novel Suicide Club was published by Hachette's Sceptre imprint in the UK, and Macmillan's Henry Holt imprint in the US in July 2018. The manuscript won a six-figure publishing deal after a bidding auction between international publishers.[12] The novel is a piece of dystopian fiction set in a world of compulsory state-managed longevity, and satirizes contemporary culture's obsession with health.[13] The plot centers on a group of rebels called the "Suicide Club" which circulates secretly-filmed videos of their own suicides as a form of release and protest against the health-obsessed establishment.[14] The novel was inspired by dystopian pieces such as George Orwell's Animal Farm and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.[5] Heng's novel was named a most anticipated novel of the summer by The Huffington Post, Gizmodo, The Irish Times, The Millions, Bustle, NYLON and Elle.[15] Critics have compared Suicide Club favourably to Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go,[14][13] Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.[16] Suicide Club is pending translation into 10 languages worldwide.[15]

Heng's short fiction has been published widely in literary journals such as The New Yorker,[17] Glimmer Train, Tin House, Prairie Schooner, The Offing, Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, and The Minnesota Review.[18] Her fiction has received a Pushcart special mention and Prairie Schooner's Jane Geske award.[18] She has written essays and features for The Telegraph,[19] The Rumpus,[20] Grazia[21] and Catapult.[22] Her essay 'On Becoming A Person of Colour' was one of The Rumpus's top read posts of 2018,[23] a 2018 Staff Pick[24] and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.[25] She was listed by The Independent as one of ten emerging authors to look out for in 2018[26] and has been profiled by outlets such as the BBC,[5] Electric Literature[27] and The Straits Times.[6] In 2021, she was longlisted for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award.[28]

Bibliography

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  • The Great Reclamation (Penguin Random House, Riverhead Books, 2023) ISBN 978-059-34-2011-9 [29][30][31][32]
  • Suicide Club (Hachette, Henry Holt, 2018) ISBN 978-147-36-7291-8

References

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  1. ^ "The New American Voices Award". Institute for Immigration Research. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  2. ^ Treisman, Deborah (31 May 2021). "Rachel Heng on Societal Cruelty". The New Yorker. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  3. ^ "The Great Reclamation". Rachel Heng. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  4. ^ "Bookshelf". Columbia College Today. 27 June 2018. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  5. ^ a b c Rackham, Annabel (16 July 2018). "What if burgers and beer were illegal?". BBC. Archived from the original on 16 November 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  6. ^ a b Ho, Olivia (18 July 2017). "Singaporean's debut novel scores six-figure sums from US, UK publishers in auction". Straits Times. Archived from the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  7. ^ "Heng wins 2023 New American Voices Award". George Mason University. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  8. ^ JCARMICHAEL (16 October 2023). "2024 Winners". Reference & User Services Association (RUSA). Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  9. ^ "9 New Books We Recommend This Week". The New York Times. 4 May 2023. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  10. ^ "The Best Books We Read This Week". The New Yorker. 25 January 2023. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  11. ^ "Amazon.com: Best Books of the Year So Far: Books". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  12. ^ General, Ryan. "Singaporean Author Lands Six-Figure Deals From U.S., U.K. Publishers for Her First Novel". nextshark.com. Archived from the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  13. ^ a b Gilmartin, Sarah. "Suicide Club by Rachel Heng: Who wants to live forever?". Irish Times. Archived from the original on 21 July 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  14. ^ a b Smith, Rosa Inocencio (31 August 2018). "'Suicide Club' Takes On the Tyranny of Wellness". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  15. ^ a b "Rachel Heng in conversation w/Liz Moore". Blue Stoop. Archived from the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  16. ^ Stallings, M. Brianna (12 October 2018). "Suicide Club: A Novel About Living by Rachel Heng". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  17. ^ Heng, Rachel (25 May 2021). ""Before the Valley"". New Yorker. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  18. ^ a b "RACHEL HENG: Turning Rejections into Motivation - 88 Cups of Tea with Yin Chang web". 88cupsoftea.com. 6 July 2018. Archived from the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  19. ^ Heng, Rachel (10 July 2018). "I was a City worker addicted to exercise". Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  20. ^ Heng, Rachel (10 July 2018). "On Becoming A Person Of Color". therumpus.net. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  21. ^ "'Clean Eating Is Just Another Way To Punish Ourselves'". Grazia. 24 July 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  22. ^ "You Bet Your Life: 'Death Bonds,' the Investments That Want You Dead | Rachel Heng". Catapult. 2 August 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  23. ^ "The Rumpus Top 20 Of 2018". The Rumpus.net. 28 December 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  24. ^ "What To Read When: Rumpus Staff Favorites 2018 - The Rumpus.net". therumpus.net. 14 December 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  25. ^ "The Rumpus 2018 Pushcart Prize Nominees!". therumpus.net. 16 November 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  26. ^ Bradbury, Sarah. "Emerging authors to look out for in 2018". The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  27. ^ Chen, Karissa (12 July 2018). "What if You Could Live Forever?". Electric Literature. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  28. ^ "Fifteen authors have been longlisted for the 2021 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award | The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award". www.shortstoryaward.co.uk. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  29. ^ "A Fishing Family at Sea in a Changing Singapore". The New York Times.
  30. ^ "Rachel Heng on her novel 'The Great Reclamation'". NPR.
  31. ^ "My Decade of Temporary Homes". Esquire. 22 March 2023. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  32. ^ "Reshaping a Country: On Rachel Heng's "The Great Reclamation"". Los Angeles Review of Books. 7 April 2023. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
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