American · b. 1990
Lauren Oyler writes criticism that makes enemies and fiction that makes readers uncomfortable. Her essays—on autofiction, on "the personal," on the contemporary literary scene—are sharp and often cruel in useful ways. "Fake Accounts" (2021), her debut novel, follows a woman who discovers her boyfriend is an anonymous Instagram conspiracy theorist; what follows is a disquisition on authenticity, identity, and the performance of the self online. "No Judgment" (2024) collects her essays. Oyler writes as if criticism were a martial art.