Originally from New England, Moshfegh relocated to California after completing a Master of Fine Arts degree at Brown and a fellowship at Stanford. Her first novel, Eileen, was published in 2015 with much critical claim, winning the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, immediately launching her writing career. Since then, she has published three other novels, a novella, and a short story collection.

Critics praised Eileen especially for its darkness: “Charmingly disturbing. Delightfully dour. Pleasingly perverse” (Zimmerman, Jean. “Eileen Is Dark, Damaged Fun.” NPR, 23 Aug. 2015). Moshfegh’s later novels continue the pattern, focusing on amoral characters who live on the fringes of society and demonstrating a willingness to examine the perverse or grotesque in meticulous detail. Eileen tells the story of an insecure and lonely young woman who works as a secretary at a prison while she cares for her father with alcoholism. A new friendship brings some pleasure back into her life until her friend leads her down a path of crime and darkness. My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Moshfegh’s second novel, follows another lonely and unhappy young woman in her attempt to sleep a year of her life away using a curated cocktail of prescription medications.