Jill Ciment

Jill Ciment
Born	1953 (age 71–72) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Occupation	Memoirist, novelist, and professor

Jill Ciment (born 1953) ^[1] is a Canadian-American writer.

Biography

Ciment was born to a Russian Jewish family in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. When she was 10, she and her family immigrated to the United States, settling in Los Angeles, California. ^[2] She studied art at the California Institute of Arts (CalArts), under John Baldessari. ^[3] She earned her BFA from CalArts in 1975. ^[4] She received her MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine in 1981. ^[5]

Ciment is an emeritus professor ^[6] of English at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Her novel, Heroic Measures, was one of titles chosen by Oprah Winfrey's Book Club for 2009 summer reading. ^[7] The book was also one of the top five finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for 2010. ^[8] 5 Flights Up , a film adaptation of Heroic Measures starring Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton, was released in the U.S. on May 8, 2015.

In 1969, she began an affair with her art teacher, Arnold Mesches, when she was 17 and in his class. He was 47, and married with two children. They moved in together the following year, married, and were together until his death in 2016. ^[9] Her memoir, Half a Life, reflected on their relationship together and was published in 1996. Following Arnold's death and in context of the Me Too movement, she re-examined their almost 50 year relationship with a new memoir, Consent. ^[10]

Grants and literary awards

• Two New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (1996 and 2002) ^[11]
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (2005) ^[12]
• Guggenheim Foundation grant (2006) ^[13]
• The Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize (2005) ^[14]
• NEA Japan Fellowship Prize

Works

Novels

• The Law of Falling Bodies, Poseidon, 1993 ^[15]
• Teeth of the Dog, Crown, 1998 ^[16]
• The Tattoo Artist, Pantheon, 2005 ^[17]
• Heroic Measures, Pantheon, 2009 ^[18]
• Act of God, Pantheon, 2015 ^[19]
• The Hand That Feeds You, (with Amy Hempel) writing as A.J. Rich, Scribner, 2015 ^[20]
• The Body in Question, Pantheon, 2019 ^[21]

Short stories

Collections:

• Small Claims, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1986, collection of 4 (or more) short stories:

  "Self-Portrait with Vanishing Point", "Genetics", "Astronomy", "Money" (novella)

Non-fiction

• Half a Life, Crown, 1996 ^[22]
• Consent, Pantheon, 2024 ^[23]

Adaptations

• Astronomy (1998), short directed by Susan Rogers, based on short story "Astronomy"
• 5 Flights Up (2014), film directed by Richard Loncraine, based on novel Heroic Measures

References

1. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/ciment-jill-1953
2. https://www.jewishtelegraph.com/prof_314.html
3. "ARNOLD MESCHES and JILL CIMENT with Robert Storr and Phong Bui". Brooklynrail.org. 4 March 2010. Archived from the original on 31 October 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
4. "Noted Novelist Brings Remarkable Personal Story To Davidson Classroom". Davidson.edu. Archived from the original on 24 February 2012. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
5. "Jill Ciment : Professor". English.ufl.edu. Archived from the original on 20 October 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
6. "Creative Writing Faculty". MFA@FLA: Creative Writing. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
7. "Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment". Oprah.com. Archived from the original on 22 June 2009. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
8. "2009 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Winners". Events.latimes.com. Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
9. Alter, Alexandra (2024-06-10). "At 17, She Fell in Love With a 47-Year-Old. Now She Questions the Story". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-07-05.
10. "Jill Ciment considers her decades-long marriage in light of #MeToo in 'Consent' : NPR". NPR . 2024-06-10. Archived from the original on 2024-06-10. Retrieved 2024-06-10.
11. "Directory of Artists' Fellows, 1985-2013" (PDF). www.nyfa.org. New York Foundation for the Arts. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 13, 2014. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
12. "Half a life is a long phone call from a friend (Review)", The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), 1996 Quote from source: She has ... received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and others.
13. "Jill Ciment". www.gf.org. 2006. Archived from the original on January 4, 2017. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
14. "Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize—Past Recipients". www.rochester.edu. 2005. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
15. Ciment, Jill (1993). The law of falling bodies . New York: Poseidon Press. ISBN   0-671-79451-5. OCLC   26588628.
16. Ciment, Jill (1999). Teeth of the dog : a novel (1st ed.). New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN   0-517-70202-9. OCLC   39180866.
17. Ciment, Jill (2005). The tattoo artist (1st ed.). New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN   0-375-42325-7. OCLC   57283791.
18. Ciment, Jill (2015). Heroic measures. London. ISBN   978-1-78227-194-9. OCLC   938790734.
19. Ciment, Jill (2015). Act of God . New York. ISBN   978-0-307-91170-4. OCLC   881406944.
20. Rich, A. J. (7 July 2015). The hand that feeds you. New York. ISBN   978-1-4767-7458-9. OCLC   900158232.
21. Ciment, Jill (2019). The body in question : a novel (First ed.). New York. ISBN   978-1-5247-4798-5. OCLC   1049577535.
22. Ciment, Jill (1997). Half a life (1st Anchor Books ed.). New York: Anchor Books. ISBN   0-385-48891-2. OCLC   36501398.
23. Ciment, Jill (2024). Consent: A Memoir. Pantheon. ISBN   978-0593701065.

External links

• Jill Ciment at IMDb