Photo: Michael Avedon

Photo: Michael Avedon

Announcing…THE SEQUEL, coming October 1st, 2024

After the “insanely readable” (Stephen King) and “perfectly told” (Malcolm Gladwell)New York Times bestseller The Plot comes Jean Hanff Korelitz’s equally captivating new novel: The Sequel. 

Anna Williams-Bonner has taken care of business. That is to say, she’s taken care of her husband, bestselling novelist Jacob Finch Bonner, and laid to rest those anonymous accusations of plagiarism that so tormented him. Now she is living the contented life of a literary widow, enjoying her husband’s royalty checks in perpetuity, but for the second time in her life, a work of fiction intercedes, and this time it’s her own debut novel, The Afterword. After all, how hard can it really be to write a universally lauded bestseller?

But when Anna publishes her book and indulges in her own literary acclaim, she begins to receive excerpts of a novel she never expected to see again, a novel that should no longer exist. That it does means something has gone very wrong, and someone out there knows far too much: about her late brother, her late husband, and just possibly... Anna, herself. What does this person want and what are they prepared to do? She has come too far, and worked too hard, to lose what she values most: the sole and uncontested right to her own story. And she is, by any standard, a master storyteller.

With her signature wit and sardonic humor, Jean Hanff Korelitz gives readers an antihero to root for while illuminating and satirizing the world of publishing in this deliciously fun and suspenseful read.

 

ABOUT

Jean Hanff Korelitz was born and raised in New York City and educated at Dartmouth College and Clare College, Cambridge. She is the author of the novels: The Sequel (a sequel to The Plot), coming October 1st, 2024, The Latecomer (limited series adaptation forthcoming from Kristen Campo’s Campout Productions and Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories), The Plot (adaptation forthcoming from Hulu, to star Mahershala Ali), You Should Have Known (Adapted for HBO as “The Undoing” by David E. Kelley, directed by Susanne Bier and starring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant and Donald Sutherland), Admission (adapted as the 2013 film of the same name, starring Tina Fey, Lily Tomlin and Paul Rudd), The Devil and Webster, The White Rose, The Sabbathday River and A Jury of Her Peers, as well as a middle-grade reader, Interference Powder, and a collection of poetry, The Properties of Breath. 

With her husband, Irish poet Paul Muldoon, she adapted James Joyce’s “The Dead” as an immersive theatrical event, THE DEAD, 1904. The play was produced by Dot Dot Productions, LLC, for the Irish Repertory Theatre and performed at New York's American Irish Historical Society for seven week runs in 2016, 2017, and 2018. The production is schedule to return in the fall of 2024.

Korelitz is the founder of BOOKTHEWRITER, a New York City based service that offers "Pop-Up Book Groups" where readers can discuss books with their authors. Events are now being held simultaneously in person in New York City (with participants vaccinated and masked) and online over Zoom.

She and Paul Muldoon are the parents of two children and live in New York City.

THE PLOT was The Tonight Show’s 2021 “Summer Reads” selection

Looking for discussion questions for THE PLOT? Click here and scroll to the end of the page.

VERY OCCASIONAL ANNOUNCEMENTS APPEAR BELOW

Exciting year end lists for 2022! THE LATECOMER has been included in The New York Times’ 100 Books of the Year, CBS Sunday Morning/Favorite Novels of 2022, The New Yorker Magazine’s The Best Books of 2022, Washington Post’s 50 Best Fiction Books of 2022, and NPR’s Staff Picks/Best of 2022.

A television adaptation of THE LATECOMER will be developed by producers Kristen Campo (Campout Productions) and Bruna Papandrea (Made Up Stories). Read the announcement here.

Nice to share this wonderful honor with my husband, who collaborated with Paul McCartney on the magnificent THE LYRICS. Thank you to People Magazine!

A once in a lifetime photo taken by my daughter in front of Penn Station, after THE PLOT was named Amazon’s Number 3 book of the year!

Some news about the television adaptation of THE PLOT:

Multiple outlets are bidding on a buzzy limited series adaptation of the best-selling novel “The Plot” with Mahershala Ali attached to star for Endeavor Content.

“How to Get Away With Murder” writer Abby Ajayi is on board to pen the series based on the psychological thriller by “The Undoing” author Jean Hanff Korelitz about a struggling author and writing instructor who steals a genius plot idea for a novel from one of his students. The book is a smash hit, his career soars but he’s also drawn into a game of cat-and-mouse with a tormentor who knows he lifted the story idea.

Endeavor Content assembled the eight-episode project and shopped it in recent days to at least a half-dozen outlets, including Netflix, Hulu, HBO/HBO Max and Amazon. It’s known to have been enthusiastically received and drawn multiple offers. Endeavor Content declined to comment.

Layne Eskridge, the former Netflix and Apple TV executive who inked a production deal with Endeavor Content in January, is on board to serve as an executive producer. Kristen Campo, former Chernin Entertainment executive who is now working under a deal at Endeavor Content, is also an executive producer, as is Ali.

Ali is a two-time Oscar winner, for 2017’s “Moonlight” and 2019’s “Green Book.” For TV, he starred in the third season of HBO’s “True Detective” in 2019 and was a regular on Netflix’s “Luke Cage” and “House of Cards.” He was featured in the 2020 HBO documentary special “Between the World and Me,” and he was a semi-regular last year on the Hulu comedy “Ramy.”

Thanks to THE GUARDIAN (UK) and Lisa Allardice for this great profile!

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I spoke to Sarah Silverman on her podcast, about THE UNDOING, adaptation, and the genius of Tevye.

The Jewish Daily Forward on THE UNDOING’s Jewish roots.

Link

“Meet the Makers” with Irish Repertory Theatre. Discussing THE DEAD, 1904 with Paul Muldoon, Ciaran O’Reilly, Nina Korelitz Matza and Liz Neumark

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10/24/19 It was such a thrill to interview Erica Jong for the Sharon Springs Poetry Festival last weekend. Here’s a write up from AllOtsego.com

10/22/19

As someone who’s written at some length about college admissions, I’ve followed the unfolding #VarsityBlues scandal with great interest, and I have some thoughts.

First, anyone who wants to truly understand the current admissions landscape should read Jerome Karabel’s THE CHOSEN: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF ADMISSION AND EXCLUSION AT HARVARD, YALE, AND PRINCETON, as I did when I was writing ADMISSION. Looking at the current configuration without being able to place it in a historical context is not useful.

Second, colleges should discontinue designated admits and recruiting for sports that are generally not offered in public schools: Equestrian, sailing, golf, skiing, lacrosse, etc. (Though these sports can certainly still be played, even at the college level.)

Third, legacy applicants (and their parents) are not the villains of this story. Alumni loyalty flows in both directions, as it should, and children of graduates are often spectacular applicants, HOWEVER, advantaged admission for legacy applicants should be capped at a set quota, with only the most competitive within that pool admitted. Those not so admitted should join the regular applicant pool with no earmark for legacy status.

Finally, for a holistic reset of the entire process, students should not apply to college until they have been out of high school for one year, and should not begin college until two years after graduation. This puts the application process into the students’ hands and allows for more mature and focused applicants who are really ready to go to college and study (as opposed to party). It also makes parents less central, less involved, and hopefully less competitive.

“Fair” is a malleable concept, in this as in most settings. People who bemoan the “brokenness” of college admissions must understand that the system, implemented by well meaning, usually very idealistic, human beings in a constantly shifting social and cultural landscape, are doing their best to fulfill their responsibilities to the institutions they serve. The vast majority of applicants are hugely qualified, and no matter how decisions are made, deserving and capable young people of every conceivable ethnicity and background will still be rejected. No adjustments to the process will ever change that fact.

Those are my thoughts.