Lynn Freed was born and grew up in Durban, South Africa. She came to New York as a graduate student, receiving her MA and PhD in English Literature from Columbia University.
After moving to San Francisco, she wrote her first novel, HEART CHANGE (republished as FRIENDS OF THE FAMILY). Since then, she has published six more novels: HOME GROUND, THE BUNGALOW, THE MIRROR , HOUSE OF WOMEN, THE SERVANTS’ QUARTERS and, in 2017, THE LAST LAUGH. She has a collection of short stories, THE CURSE OF THE APPROPRIATE MAN, and two collections of essays: READING, WRITING & LEAVING HOME: LIFE ON THE PAGE, and THE ROMANCE OF ELSEWHERE.
In 2002, Ms. Freed was awarded the inaugural Katherine Anne Porter Award in fiction by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and The Guggenheim Foundation, and been awarded residencies and fellowships supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, The Camargo Foundation, The Lannan Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Bogliasco Foundation, Civitella Ranieri, The Corporation of Yaddo, and The MacDowell Colony, among others.
Freed died at the age of seventy-nine on May 9, 2025.
