Writing Offill's first novel,
Last Things, was published in 1999 by
Farrar, Straus and Giroux and in the UK by
Bloomsbury. It was a
New York Times Notable book and a finalist for the
L.A Times First Book Award. Offill's second novel,
Dept. of Speculation, was published in January 2014 and was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by the
New York Times Book Review.
Dept. of Speculation has been shortlisted for the
Folio Prize in the UK, the Pen/Faulkner Award and the
L.A. Times Fiction Award. In 2016 Offill was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship. Her work has appeared in the
Paris Review. She is also the co-editor with
Elissa Schappell of two anthologies of essays and the author of several children's books. Offill's short fiction has appeared in Electric Literature and Significant Objects.Her third novel,
Weather, was shortlisted for the 2020
Women's Prize for Fiction, and in December 2020, Emily Temple of
Literary Hub reported that the novel had made 13 lists of the best books of 2020.
Teaching Offill has taught in the MFA programs at
Brooklyn College,
Syracuse University,
Columbia University and
Queens University of Charlotte. She served as Visiting Writer at Syracuse University and
Sarah Lawrence College, and as
Writer-in-Residence at
Vassar College and Pratt University. She is currently the Writer-in-Residence at
Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. == Personal life ==