Erica Jong

Prolific Novelist and Women’s Rights Activist

Erica Jong is a poet, novelist, and essayist best known for her eight best-selling novels: Fear of Flying, which has sold 20 million copies in more than 40 languages, How to Save Your Own Life, Fanny: Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones, Parachutes & Kisses, Shylock’s Daughter (or Serenissima), Any Woman’s Blues, Inventing Memory, and Sappho’s Leap. Her mid-life memoir Fear of Fifty also became a major international best-seller. Her latest book is the anthology Sugar in My Bowl: Real Women Write About Real Sex, which she edited.

Sought-after Speaker

Known for her commitment to women’s rights, authors’ rights, and free expression, Jong is a frequent keynote speaker and lecturer in the U.S. and abroad. She has spoken at International Women’s Day at the Royal Library in Copenhagen, the International Jewish Literature Festival in Rome, the Goteborg Book Festival, La Milanesiana in Milan, Italy, the Iowa Women’s Leadership Conference, San Miguel Writer’s Conference in Mexico, The Aspen Writers’ Foundation’s Summer and Winter Words, Skirball, and has given Master Classes at Barnard and Hunter Colleges in New York City.

Let’s Talk about Sex

In addition to speaking about women’s rights and the status and future of women today, Jong has remarkable insights about sexuality in America. Her life and career has afforded her this keen perspective and she uses the multi-generational and multi-cultural backgrounds gleaned from editing Sugar in My Bowlas a jumping off point for this discussion. In this eye-opening and courageous collection by women about sex, Jong reveals that every woman has her own answer to the question of what women want out of sex.

Additional Writings

Jong is also the author of seven award-winning collections of poetry, the most recent of which is Love Comes First. She is also the author of five non-fiction (memoir and reporting) books and regularly blogs for The Huffington Post. Her work has appeared all over the world in magazines, newspapers, and blogs.

Memberships and Academia

Jong served as president of The Authors’ Guild from 1991 to 1993 and still serves on the Board. She established a program for young writers at her alma mater, Barnard College. The Erica Mann Jong Writing Center at Barnard teaches students the art of peer tutoring and editing. Columbia University (where she received her M.A. in 18th century literature) acquired her literary archive in 2008.

Awards and Accolades

In 1998, Erica was honored with the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature. She has received Poetry magazine’s Bess Hokin Prize for her poetry and the Deauville Award for Literary Excellence in France. In Italy, she received the Sigmund Freud Award for Literature in 1975. In June 2009, Jong won the first Fernanda Pivano Prize for Literature in Italy.