When in French (Collins) - Author Bio

Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1979-80
• Raised—Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
• Education—B.A., Princeton University
• Currently—lives in Paris, France


Lauren Collins is a writer for The New Yorker, whose memoir, When in French: Love in a Second Language was published in 2016.

Collins was raised in Wilmington, North Carolina. Her mother grew up outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and her father, a lawyer, was raised on New York's Long Island. The two met at Duke University, then settled in Wilmington. As a child, Collins traveled frequently to visit family in New York, becoming familiar with the city and prompting a move to Manhattan during and after college.

Collin majored in English at Princeton University, and in the summer after her junior year, she interned for Legal Aid in New York City, where she gathered evidence as an investigator. She came to the realization that what she cared about were not the legal aspects of the job but the personal stories she obtained while interviewing people. That interest led her to consider journalism.

Following graduation, and a short stint as an editorial assistant at Vogue, she landed a job in 2003 at The New Yorker. After a time she became a staff writer.

Eventually Collins moved to London, where she met her French-speaking husband, Oliver. From there the couple moved to Geneva, Switzerland, and finally, to Paris, where they now live.

The subject of Collins's memoir is her struggle to learn French in order to communicate with her husband on a deeper level. She also feared becoming "a Borat of a mother," unable to understand her own children. What ensues is a funny story about the lengths we go to for love. She breaks from personal journey to share historical knowledge and linguistics and the history of language.