Jonathan Blum (writer, born 1967)

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Jonathan Blum (writer, born 1967) is an American writer.

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Profile

Early life

Blum was born into a Jewish family in Philadelphia, grew up in Miami, Florida and currently lives in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from UCLA and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Since then, he has taught fiction writing at Drew University and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, [1] and has published short stories, essays, poems, and a novella.

Writing

Blum is the author of the short story collection The Usual Uncertainties (Rescue Press, 2019), named one of the best short story collections of 2019 by Electric Literature [2] and a novella, Last Word (Rescue Press, 2013), [3] named one of the year's "best books to give as gifts" by Iowa Public Radio. [4] Iowa Public Radio included The Usual Uncertainties on their list of best new fiction books for winter 2019. [5]

In November 2013, Last Word was an Editor's Pick at NewPages. Stephen Lovely in The Iowa Review called Last Word "a masterful finesse of unreliable narration." [6]

Blum's short fiction has appeared in Angels Flight • literary west, The Carolina Quarterly , Electric Literature , Green Mountains Review , Gulf Coast , Kenyon Review , [7] New York Stories , Northwest Review , Playboy , Shanxi Literature, Sonora Review and Zaum.

Awards

Blum has won the Michener-Copernicus Society of America literary award, [8] the Playboy Magazine College Fiction Contest, [9] a Helene Wurlitzer Foundation fellowship, and a Hawthornden fellowship. [10]

The personal essay "May Be Habit Forming" was a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2000, edited by Robert Atwan and Alan Lightman.

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References

  1. "Jonathan Blum | Iowa Summer Writing Festival". iowasummerwritingfestival.org. Retrieved 2019-09-17.
  2. "Electric Lit's 15 Best Short Story Collections of 2019". Electric Literature. 2019-12-11. Retrieved 2019-12-25.
  3. "Jonathan Blum". Rescue Press. Archived from the original on 2018-10-01. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  4. "Iowa Public Radio". www.iowapublicradio.org. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  5. Nebbe, Charity. "The Best New Fiction Books To Give, Receive Or Read This Winter If You're A Grown-Up". www.iowapublicradio.org. Retrieved 2019-12-25.
  6. Lovely, S., (2013) “Evil Speech: A Review Of Jonathan Blum's Last Word”, The Iowa Review 43(3), 180–183. doi: https://doi.org/10.17077/0021-065X.7368
  7. "Out Loud: Audio Selections from the Kenyon Review | Journal". The Kenyon Review. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  8. "Jonathan Blum, instructor, ISWF". iowasummerwritingfestival.org. Iowa Summer Writing Festival. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  9. Submittable. "Playboy Submission Manager". playboymagazine.submittable.com. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  10. "Hawthornden Castle". www.transartists.org. Retrieved 2019-09-10.