Allegra Goodman | |
|---|---|
 Goodman at the 2025 Texas Book Festival | |
| Born | 5 July 1967 New York City, U.S. |
| Education | Harvard University (AB) Stanford University (PhD) |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Spouse | David Karger |
| Children | 4 |
| Writing career | |
| Period | 1989-current |
| Genre | Literary fiction |
| Website | allegragoodman |
Allegra Goodman (born 5 July 1967) is an American writer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Allegra Goodman was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Hawaii. She was brought up as a Conservative Jew. Her mother, Madeleine Goodman, who died in 1996, was a professor of genetics and women's studies, then assistant vice president at the University of Hawaii at Manoa for many years, before moving on to Vanderbilt University in the 1990s. Her father, Lenn E. Goodman, is a professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt and the author of a dozen books.
Goodman wrote and illustrated her first novel at the age of seven.
Goodman graduated from Punahou School in 1985. She then went to Harvard University, where she earned a BA degree. She then went on to do graduate work at Stanford University, where she earned a Ph.D. degree in English literature in 1996.
Goodman's younger sister, Paula Fraenkel, is an oncologist. Fraenkel's experience in research labs is one of the inspirations for Goodman's 2006 novel Intuition.
Her short story "La Vita Nuova" was selected for The Best American Short Stories 2011 and was broadcast on Public Radio International's Selected Shorts in February 2012.
Her novel Isola was named one of People's best books of February 2025. It was included in New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2025 list and Time magazine's 100 Must-Read Books of 2025 list.
Goodman met her husband, David Karger, at Harvard University. Both were regulars at Harvard Hillel, and prayed in Harvard Hillel Orthodox Minyan. Goodman and Karger live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Karger is a professor in computer science at MIT. They have four adult children, three boys and a girl. They are traditionally Jewish in their observance.
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Category | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | — | Whiting Award | Fiction | Won | |
| 1998 | Kaaterskill Falls | National Book Award | Fiction | Shortlisted | |
| 2009 | Intuition | Wellcome Book Prize | — | Shortlisted | |
| 2018 | "F.A.Q.s" | Sunday Times Short Story Award | — | Shortlisted |
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