Audrey Niffenegger, born on June 13, 1963, is not a writer by training. She was a visual artist at the School of Art Institute of Chicago. She is also an MFA recipient from Northwestern University’s Department of Art Theory and Practice. As an artist, she has had her work exhibited at Printworks Gallery since 1987. These include a variety of prints, artist books, paintings, comics, and drawings. Some of her artworks have also been published commercially, such as The Adventuress and The Three Incestuous Sisters.

In fiction, Niffenegger is best known for her first novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife. The story is about a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to travel through time involuntarily and his wife as she deals with his unplanned and frequent absences. Initially, the novel was supposed to be a graphic novel. The novel was published in 2003 and became an international bestseller. The Time Traveler’s Wife was adapted into a film in 2009, starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams.

Niffenegger published her second novel in 2009, titled Her Fearful Symmetry. This sophomore novel proved that Niffenegger had a flair for the fantastical. The novel is about identical twins who inherit an apartment from their late aunt. Upon moving into the apartment, they start to learn more about their aunt, who has been estranged from her twin sister, the twins’ mother, for years. Later on, the twins find out that their aunt’s ghost still lives in the apartment after it attempts to communicate with them.

Raven Girl, an illustrated novella published in 2013, is Niffenegger’s third published story. The novella is about a postman who meets a raven on his route. The couple fall in love and conceive a child, a raven girl trapped in a human body. The novella was adapted by the Royal Ballet and performed at the Royal Opera House.

Other than an artist and fictionist, Niffenegger is also an academic. She works as a professor in the Department of Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago. She is also a founding member of Text 3 (T3), an group of artists and writers who perform and exhibit in Chicago. She also helped found and used to teach at the Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts.

Currently, Niffenegger is working on her third novel, The Chinchilla Girl in Exile, and a sequel to The Time Traveler’s Wife. She is also working with Eddie Campbell, illustrator of From Hell, on a modern romance comic.

Sources:

• https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/928/audrey-niffenegger
• https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/audrey-niffenegger-woman-on-the-edge-of-time-74895.html
• https://nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/audrey-niffenegger

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