{{short description|American writer}} {{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see :Template:Infobox Writer/doc. --> | name = Elliott Holt | honorific_prefix = | honorific_suffix = | image = Elliott Holt (cropped).jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Holt in 2012 | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = <!-- {{Birth date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | birth_place = | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = | language = | nationality = American | ethnicity = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = Kenyon College<br>Brooklyn College | period = | genre = novelist | subject = | movement = | notableworks = | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | years_active = | module = | website = <!-- www.example.com --> | portaldisp = }} '''Elliott Holt''' is an American fiction writer and former ad copywriter.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Art of Reinvention|url=http://www.marieclaire.com/career-money/jobs/changing-jobs-changing-careers-2|publisher=Marie Claire|accessdate=30 November 2012|archive-date=8 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141008004951/http://www.marieclaire.com/career-money/jobs/changing-jobs-changing-careers-2|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2013, she published ''You Are One of Them'', a novel based on the true story of Samantha Smith.
== Early life == Holt was born in Washington, DC and is the daughter of the public broadcasting pioneer, Samuel C. O. Holt.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Elliott Holt |url=https://www.arts.gov/impact/literary-arts/creative-writing-fellows/elliott-holt |access-date=2024-09-28 |website=www.arts.gov |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Falk |first=Tyler |date=2023-11-17 |title=Samuel C. O. Holt, author of seminal study on public radio, dies at 87 |url=https://current.org/2023/11/samuel-holt-author-of-seminal-study-on-public-radio-dies-at-87/?wallit_nosession=1 |access-date=2024-09-28 |website=Current |language=en-US}}</ref>
Holt attended Kenyon College as an undergraduate, where she "credits her experiences at Kenyon as a drama major with honing her fiction-writing skills."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://kenyoncollegian.com/archive/2013/03/elliott-holt-97-to-read-from-historical-novel-you-are-one-of-them/|title=Elliott Holt '97 to read from historical novel You Are One of Them|last=Sweeney|first=Rachel|date=March 13, 2013|website=Kenyon Collegian}}</ref> She then went on to pursue her MFA at Brooklyn College, where she studied with professors such as Michael Cunningham, and received the Himan Brown award.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/2007/32395/index4.html|title=The Stars of Tomorrow|website=NYMag.com|date=25 May 2007 |access-date=2019-01-07}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aspenpublicradio.org/post/first-draft-elliott-holt|title=First Draft - Elliott Holt|last=Rapkin|first=Mitzi|website=www.aspenpublicradio.org|date=6 January 2014 |language=en|access-date=2019-01-07}}</ref>
== Writing ==
Holt won a 2011 Pushcart Prize for her story "Fem Care" and was the runner-up of the 2011 PEN Emerging Writers Award for her story "The Norwegians." She was also part of Twitter's 2012 ''#twitterfiction'' festival.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/11/29/writer_elliott_holt_wins_us_over_with_her_twitter_fiction.html/ |title=Twitter Fiction Done Right|publisher=Slate |date= 2012-11-29 |accessdate=2012-11-30}}</ref>
In 2007 ''New York'' magazine named Holt one of their "Future Writing Stars in New York's Writing Programs".<ref>{{cite web|title=The Stars of Tomorrow|date=25 May 2007 |url=http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/2007/32395/index4.html|publisher=New York Magazine|accessdate=30 November 2012}}</ref>
In 2013, Holt published a novel, ''You Are One of Them'', that draws on the true story of Samantha Smith, an American schoolgirl who wrote to Soviet premier Yuri Andropov at the height of the Cold War.<ref name="sfgate" /> Smith then visited the Soviet Union on a peace tour but died in a plane crash en route home.<ref name="sfgate">Natalie Bakopoulos, [http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/You-Are-One-of-Them-by-Elliott-Holt-4615480.php 'You Are One of Them,' by Elliott Holt], ''San Francisco Gate'', June 21, 2013</ref> In Holt’s retelling, the schoolgirl’s childhood friend goes to post-Soviet Russia in search of her friend more than a decade later after hearing her friend may still be alive, having defected to the USSR.<ref name="nyer">{{cite magazine|title=You Are One of Them|language=en-us|magazine=The New Yorker|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/07/29/you-are-one-of-them|access-date=19 January 2021}}</ref> The book was a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice<ref>{{Cite news |date=June 2, 2013 |title=Editors' Choice |work=The New York Times |pages=54}}</ref> and was widely and favorably reviewed.<ref name="thebostonglobe">Max Winter,[https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2013/06/12/book-review-you-are-one-them-elliott-holt/j1CVNzS11rVn6gNUQlGa7I/story.html ‘You Are One of Them’ by Elliott Holt], ''The Boston Globe'', June 12, 2013</ref><ref name="npr">Lidia Jean Kott, [https://www.npr.org/2013/05/18/175473811/author-elliott-holt-says-go-west-young-woman Author Elliott Holt Says: 'Go West, Young Woman'], ''NPR'', May 18, 2013</ref><ref name="nytimes">Maggie Shipstead, [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/books/review/you-are-one-of-them-by-elliott-holt.html?_r=0 Cold War, Cooled Heart], ''The New York Times'', May 24, 2013</ref> In the New York Times Book Review, Maggie Shipstead wrote, "…You Are One of Them” is a hugely absorbing first novel from a writer with a fluid, vivid style and a rare knack for balancing the pleasure of entertainment with the deeper gratification of insight."<ref name="nytimes" />
Holt was a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts prose fellow.<ref name=":0" />
==Bibliography==
===Novels=== *''You Are One of Them''
===Short stories=== *''Evacuation Instructions'' (2008, ''Bellevue Literary Review'') *''The Norwegians'' (2010, ''Guernica'') *''Fem Care'' (2009, ''Kenyon Review''; reprinted in ''The Pushcart Prize XXXV'' in 2011)
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://storify.com/penguinpress/elliotholt-s-twitterfiction-story @ElliottHolt's #TwitterFiction Story] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121201001332/http://storify.com/penguinpress/elliotholt-s-twitterfiction-story |date=2012-12-01 }} *[http://www.guernicamag.com/fiction/the_norwegians/ "The Norwegians" by Elliott Holt] * [http://www.kenyonreview.org/kr-online-issue/2009-summer/selections/fem-care/ "Fem Care" by Elliott Holt]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Holt, Elliott}} Category:Living people Category:21st-century American novelists Category:American women short story writers Category:21st-century American women novelists Category:21st-century American short story writers Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Brooklyn College alumni Category:American electronic literature writers