Emily St. John Mandel had a problem with her Wikipedia page, and found a solution with an assist from an editor at Slate.
Mandel, the author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility, tweeted on Saturday, “Friends, did you know that if you have a Wikipedia page and you get a divorce, the only way to update your Wikipedia is to say you’re divorced in an interview?”
Friends, did you know that if you have a Wikipedia page and you get a divorce, the only way to update your Wikipedia is to say you’re divorced in an interview?
— Emily St. J. Mandel (@EmilyMandel) December 17, 2022
She went on to say that “if you’re reading this and you’re one of my girlfriend’s friends, she’s not actually dating a married woman, it’s just that my wikipedia page is a time capsule.”
“So anyway all I want for Christmas is for a journalist writing a story for publication (online-only is fine!) to ask me if I’m still married,” she tweeted.
Fellow author Gabriel Roth brought the tweets to the attention of Dan Kois, a Slate editor whose debut novel, Vintage Contemporaries, comes out next month.
Hours later, Slate published Kois’ “A Totally Normal Interview With Author Emily St. John Mandel.” Kois asked Mandel a few questions about her holiday plans, books she’s enjoyed, and the television adaptation of Station Eleven.
Then came this question: “So, are you married these days?”, to which Mandel responded, “No.” Kois asked a follow-up question, and Mandel replied, “The marriage ended the first week of April, after which I spent most of the rest of 2022 in divorce settlement negotiations and then received a judgment of divorce in November.”
The gambit worked. As of Monday afternoon, Mandel’s Wikipedia page reflected that she’s been divorced—which ought to prevent any more awkward questions from her girlfriend’s friends.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
