A. J. Bermudez Last updated June 27, 2025 American screenwriter and fiction writer
A. J. Bermudez is an American author and screenwriter. Her short fiction and screenwriting have won a number of awards, including the PAGE International Screenwriting Award (iCON , 2021), [ 1] [ 2] the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize ("The Lady Will Pay for Everything", 2021), [ 3] and the Iowa Short Fiction Award (Stories No One Hopes Are About Them , University of Iowa Press , 2022). [ 4] Her films have been produced in the U.S. and internationally, [ 5] and her literary writing has appeared in McSweeney's , [ 2] Virginia Quarterly Review , [ 6] Story , [ 7] Chicago Review , [ 8] The Masters Review , [ 9] Fiction International , [ 10] Electric Literature , [ 11] Boulevard , [ 12] Creative Nonfiction , [ 13] and elsewhere.
Personal life Bermudez grew up in various parts of the United States, and after graduating high school at age 16, she moved to Russia, where she worked as a music translator and with the Afghan refugee population in Moscow. [ 14] [ 15] Prior to screenwriting, Bermudez worked as an EMT. [ 14] [ 16]
In interviews, Bermudez has talked about the loss of her parents at a young age, and has described "writing, like mourning, [as] a constant negotiation between the political and the personal." [ 17] [ 18]
Career Bermudez has been a vocal advocate of social justice and the arts. [ 19] In 2019, she was named one of the Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch by the International Screenwriters Association. [ 20] Her debut book was called a "must-read" by Publishers Weekly [ 21] and was described by Anthony Marra as "an absolutely brilliant collection, so of the moment formally and politically yet timeless in its pursuit of human contradiction." [ 22]
Bermudez was announced as Co-Editor of The Maine Review in January 2022, and currently serves as Editor. [ 23] [ 24] As a writer, Bermudez's work has been noted to focus on "intersections of power, privilege, and place," with characters who subvert traditional ideas of literary protagonists. [ 25] [ 26]
In 2022, Bermudez was one of the inaugural residents artists of the Nawat Fes Residency in Fez, Morocco . [ 27] [ 28] [ 29]
Bermudez co-wrote the film My Dead Friend Zoe , which premiered at South by Southwest in 2024, with director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes .
Bibliography Stories No One Hopes Are About Them (University of Iowa Press ) [ 22] [ 4] "The Real India" (Virginia Quarterly Review ) [ 42] "Bottle Girl" (Electric Literature ) [ 43] "All the Places You Will Never Be Again" (Chicago Quarterly Review ) [ 44] "Misery & Company" (Creative Nonfiction ) [ 18] [ 45] "Rabbitfish" (SmokeLong Quarterly ) [ 46] [ 25] "Ori Dreams of a Tree" (City in a Wild Garden: Stories of the Nature of Cities ) [ 47] "The Third Trip" (Coastal Shelf ) [ 48] "Octopus" (Story ) [ 49] "Conservancy" (Litro ) [ 50] "The Voice as Heirloom" (Fiction International ) [ 10] "Obscure Trivia of the Antarctic" (Boulevard ) [ 12] [ 51] "Mnemophobe" (Chicago Review ) [ 52] "Rosa" (Every Day Fiction ) [ 53] "Fall" (The Baltimore Review ) [ 54] [ 55] "Ní de Aqui, Ní de Alla" (Arachne Press ) [ 56] "Casualty" (Columbia Journal ) [ 57] "Water & Earth" (Bad Bride ) [ 58] "Orphea" (Fearsome Critters ) [ 59] "Insertion" (The Offing ) [ 60] "Maslow's Hierarchy of Post-Pandemic Wish Fulfillment Fantasies" (McSweeney's ) [ 2] "The Body Electric" (Gertrude Press ) [ 61] "Walk-Off" (Hobart ) [ 62] "On the Negligible Proximity of Money and Mouths" (Heirlock ) [ 63] "Year of the Snake" (The Masters Review ) [ 9] "Totenhaus" (Black Static ) [ 64] [ 65] "Eating the Leaves" (Lunch Ticket ) [ 66] [ 67] "Sabbatical" (Cheap Pop ) [ 68] "Cain vs. Cain" (Iron Horse Literary Review ) [ 69] "Disenchantment" (Spider Road Press ) [ 70] "The Breakneck Boys" (Concīs ) [ 71] References 1 2 "PAGE Award: Past Winners" . 1 2 3 "McSweeney's – Authors" . 1 2 " "The Lady Will Pay for Everything" by A. J. Bermudez, Alpine Fellowship 2021 – Writing Prize Winner" . 1 2 3 Bermudez, A. J. (November 14, 2022). Stories No One Hopes Are About Them . University of Iowa Press. ISBN 978-1-60938-863-8 . ↑ "Internet Movie Database: A. J. Bermudez" . IMDb . ↑ "Virginia Quarterly Review – A. J. Bermudez" . 1 2 "Story Magazine – Our Authors" . ↑ "Chicago Review – A. J. Bermudez" . February 16, 2021. 1 2 Bermudez, A. J. (March 18, 2019). "Year of the Snake" . The Masters Review . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . 1 2 Bermudez, A. J. (September 1, 2021). "The Voice as Heirloom" . Fiction International . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ "Electric Literature – Author AJ Bermudez" . 1 2 Bermudez, A. J. (May 21, 2021). "Obscure Trivia of the Antarctic" . Boulevard Magazine . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ "Creative Nonfiction – Contributor A. J. Bermudez" . 1 2 "Amanda Bermudez on Nightingale" . Creative Screenwriting . March 13, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2022 . ↑ "MovieBytes Interview: Screenwriter A. J. Bermudez" . MovieBytes . May 5, 2017. Retrieved June 27, 2022 . ↑ "Envy Is a Big Waste of Time" . Bonsai Film . April 24, 2022. Retrieved June 27, 2022 . ↑ "Being Great in the Room with AJ Bermudez" . Apple . May 2, 2019. Retrieved June 7, 2022 . 1 2 Bermudez, A. J. (May 16, 2022). "Misery & Company" . Creative Nonfiction . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Gray, Kathryn (March 26, 2021). "Art, community and social change a part of Social Justice Conference" . San Diego City Times . Retrieved June 27, 2021 . 1 2 "Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch" . International Screenwriters Association . Retrieved June 28, 2021 . ↑ "Stories No One Hopes Are About Them" . Publishers Weekly . Retrieved September 22, 2021 . 1 2 Bermudez, A. J. (November 14, 2022). Stories No One Hopes Are About Them . Iowa University Press. ISBN 9781609388645 . Retrieved June 27, 2022 . ↑ Gargiulo, Rosanna (January 20, 2022). "Q&A with Co-Editor AJ Bermudez" . The Maine Review . Retrieved June 28, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (April 21, 2023). "Letter from the Editor" . The Maine Review . Retrieved December 19, 2023 . 1 2 Czyzniejewski, Michael (March 21, 2022). "Smoke & Mirrors with A. J. Bermudez" . SmokeLong Quarterly . Retrieved June 28, 2021 . ↑ Veloux, Andre (October 29, 2021). "Velouminous Episode 7: AJ Bermudez" . Apple Podcasts . Retrieved June 28, 2021 . ↑ "Nawat Fes Artist Residents" . American Language Center . Retrieved June 28, 2021 . ↑ Jadrawi, Siham (June 20, 2022). " "Nawat" artistic program: 14 international artists explore cultural diversity in Fez" . Aujourd'hui . Retrieved June 27, 2021 . ↑ Drihem, Mohammed (June 18, 2022). "ALC/ALIF Inaugre: La première édition de la résidence Nawat Fès au cœur de la médina de Fès" . OujdaCity (in French). Retrieved June 27, 2021 . ↑ "SXSW Film & TV Awards" . SXSW . Retrieved March 19, 2024 . ↑ "Current Finalists" . Lambda Literary . Archived from the original on June 13, 2022. Retrieved March 15, 2023 . ↑ "2023 Lambda Award Shortlist Finalists Announced" . Book Riot . March 15, 2023. Retrieved March 15, 2023 . ↑ "Pushcart Prize XLVIII : best of the small presses" . Washington County Library System . Retrieved December 19, 2023 . ↑ "Announcing the 2023-2024 Steinbeck Fellows" . Literary Hub . May 8, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023 . ↑ "Moon City Review's 2023 Best Small Fictions Nominations" . Moon City Review . December 29, 2022. Retrieved January 6, 2023 . ↑ "The Story Prize" . Bookshop.org . Retrieved January 13, 2023 . ↑ "Pushcart 2021 Nominations" . Boulevard Magazine . December 2, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2023 . ↑ "The SmokeLong Flash Fellowship for Emerging Writers" . SmokeLong Quarterly . Retrieved January 7, 2023 . ↑ Olson, Liza (March 8, 2017). "Cinequest's Screenwriting Competition Winners" . Premise and Plot . Retrieved January 7, 2023 . ↑ "Emerging Screenwriters Shoot Your Sizzle Announcements" . Emerging Screenwriters . Retrieved January 7, 2023 . ↑ "Announcing the Diverse Voices Fall 2017 Winners" . WeScreenplay . January 15, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2023 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (September 15, 2022). "The Real India" . Virginia Quarterly Review . Retrieved September 22, 2022 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (November 16, 2022). "Bottle Girl" . Electric Literature . Retrieved December 27, 2022 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (May 4, 2022). "All the Places You Will Never Be Again" . Chicago Quarterly Review . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (May 23, 2022). "A Few Notes on the Past (and Possible Future) of Public Mourning" . LitHub . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (March 21, 2022). "Rabbitfish" . SmokeLong Quarterly . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Maddox, David (November 15, 2021). City in a Wild Garden: Stories of the Nature of Cities . Publication Studio Guelph. ISBN 9781989157114 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (October 1, 2022). "The Third Trip" . Coastal Shelf . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (June 1, 2021). "Octopus" . Story Magazine . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (August 21, 2021). "Conservancy" . Litro . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ "Pushcart 2021 Nominations – Boulevard Magazine" . Boulevard Magazine . December 2, 2021. ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (February 18, 2021). "Mnemophobe" . Chicago Review . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (February 17, 2021). "Rosa" . Every Day Fiction . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (February 1, 2021). "Fall" . The Baltimore Review . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Curtis, Jenny (October 26, 2021). "Episode 311 – "Fall" by A. J. Bermudez" . A Moment of Your Time . Retrieved June 28, 2021 . ↑ Potts, Cherry (December 17, 2021). Tymes Goe by Turnes . Arachne Press. ISBN 9781913665180 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (October 24, 2020). "Casualty" . Columbia Journal . Retrieved June 27, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (October 23, 2020). "Water & Earth (for Sigríður Tomasdóttir, Iceland's First Environmental Activist)" . Bad Bride . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (July 28, 2020). "Orphea" . Fearsome Critters . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (June 23, 2020). "Insertion" . The Offing . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (June 18, 2020). "The Body Electric" . Gertrude Press . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (April 13, 2020). "Walk-Off" . Hobart . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (February 1, 2021). "On the Negligible Proximity of Money and Mouths" . Heirlock Magazine . Retrieved December 17, 2019 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (March 1, 2021). "Totenhaus" . Black Static . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Guran, Paula (August 2, 2019). "Paula Guran Reviews Short Fiction: Uncanny, Black Static, The Dark, Nightmare, and Tor.com" . Locus . Retrieved June 27, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (February 28, 2019). "Eating the Leaves" . Lunch Ticket . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Curtis, Jenny (March 31, 2020). "Episode 4 – "Eating the Leaves" by A. J. Bermudez" . A Moment of Your Time . Retrieved June 28, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (January 25, 2018). "Sabbatical" . Cheap Pop . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (January 1, 2018). "Cain vs. Cain" . Iron Horse Literary Review . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (October 25, 2017). "Disenchantment" . Spider Road Press . Retrieved June 13, 2021 . ↑ Bermudez, A. J. (June 5, 2017). "The Breakneck Boys" (PDF) . Concīs . Retrieved June 13, 2021 .
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.