Marianne Wiggins

**Marianne Wiggins** (born November 8, 1947) is an American author. She has won a Whiting Award, an National Endowment for the Arts award, and the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2004. She was a finalist for the prize because of her novel _Evidence of Things Unseen_.

## Biography

Wiggins was born on November 8, 1947, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She married Brian Porzak in 1965. She had one daughter with him. Her and Porzak divorced in 1970.

Wiggins lived in London for 16 years. She also lived in Paris, Brussels, and Rome for a little while. In January 1988, she married author Salman Rushdie in London. On February 14, 1989, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa telling other Muslims to assassinate Rushdie. They did this because they said that he committed blasphemy in his book _The Satanic Verses_. Although Wiggins had told Rushdie five days before this that she wanted to stop being married to him, she started hiding with him. The two divorced in 1993.

In 2016, Wiggins had a stroke. The stroke made her not able to read or write anymore. She got those abilities back and finished writing her novel _Properties of Thirst_ over several years. She was helped by her daughter Lara Porzak.

Wiggins currently lives in Los Angeles, California. She has been in the English department of the University of Southern California since 2005.

## Awards

- 1989: Whiting Award
- 1989: Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for _John Dollar_
- 2003: Finalist for the National Book Award for _Evidence of Things Unseen_
- 2004: Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for _Evidence of Things Unseen_

### Novels

- _Babe_, 1975; the story of a single mother.
- _Went South_, 1980.
- _Separate Checks_, 1984; a short-story writer recovers from a nervous breakdown.
- After this book was published, Wiggins was able to support herself and her daughter from her novels.
- _John Dollar_, 1989; eight girls, marooned on an island.
- Won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for best novel written by an American woman.
- _Eveless Eden_, 1995; the romance between a war correspondent and a photographer.
- Story suggested by then-husband Salman Rushdie.
- Shortlisted for 1996 Orange Prize.
- _Almost Heaven_, 1998.
- _Evidence of Things Unseen_, 2003; the dawn of the atomic age is seen through the eyes of Fos, an amateur chemist in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and Opal, a glassblower's daughter.
- Nominated for 2003 National Book Award.
- Gold medal for 2004 Commonwealth Club Prize (fiction).
- Finalist for 2004 Pulitzer Prize.
- _The Shadow Catcher_, 2007; a dual narrative threading early life of photographer Edward Curtis and current life of "Marianne Wiggins."
- _Properties of Thirst_, 2022

### Collections

- _Herself in Love and Other Stories_, 1987.
    - "Herself in Love," Originally published in _Granta 17: While Waiting for a War_, August 1985
- _Bet They'll Miss Us When We're Gone_, 1991.

## Infobox (writer)

- **name**: Marianne Wiggins
- **birth place**: Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S.
- **occupation**: Author
- **genre**: Fiction
- **notableworks**: _Separate Checks_ (1984)
_John Dollar_ (1989)
_Evidence of Things Unseen_ (2003)
- **awards**: Whiting Awards, Whiting Award
National Endowment for the Arts, NEA Award
Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize