Gary Shteyngart Birth:

Gary Shteyngart was born Igor Shteyngart in Leningrad, USSR in 1972.

Gary Shteyngart Background and Writing:

Gary Shteyngart, the son of an engineer father and pianist mother, came from Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia) to the United States at the age of seven, when his family moved to New York. He studied politics at Oberlin College and later earned his MFA in Creative Writing from the City University of New York.

Shteyngart's debut novel, The Russian Debutante's Handbook (2003) is about a Russian-Jewish man seeking his fortune in both New York and the fictional European city of Prava. The book was inspired by a trip Shteyngart took to Prague with his girlfriend.

In Super Sad True Love Story (2010), Shteyngart transports his readers into a bizarre furture in which Lenny, a 39-year old son on Russian Jewish immigrants, meets Eunice, a 24-year old daughter of Korean Christian immigrants, for - well - a super sad true love story.

Shteyngart lives in Manhattan where he teaches writing at Columbia University. In 2010, he was named one of the New Yorker's "20 under 40" writer's to watch.

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