Leslie Jamison

Last updated
Leslie Jamison
Leslie jamison 2014.jpg
Leslie Jamison at the 2014 Texas Book Festival
Born (1983-06-21) June 21, 1983 (age 40)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Occupation
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAmerican
Education Harvard College (AB)
Iowa Writers' Workshop (MFA)
Yale University (PhD)
Period21st century
Notable worksThe Gin Closet
The Empathy Exams
Website
www.lesliejamison.com

Leslie Sierra Jamison (born June 21, 1983) [1] [2] [3] is an American novelist and essayist. She is the author of the 2010 novel The Gin Closet and the 2014 essay collection The Empathy Exams. Jamison also directs the nonfiction concentration in writing at Columbia University School of the Arts.

Contents

Early life

Jamison was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. [1] Her parents are Joanne Leslie, a nutritionist and former professor of public health, and economist and global health researcher Dean Jamison; she is the niece of clinical psychologist and writer Kay Redfield Jamison. [4] Jamison grew up with two older brothers. Her parents divorced when she was 11, after which she lived with her mother. [1]

Jamison attended Harvard College, where she majored in English and graduated in 2004. [5] Her senior thesis dealt with incest in the work of William Faulkner. [6] While an undergraduate, she won the Edward Eager Memorial Fund prize in creative writing, an award also won by her classmate, writer Uzodimna Iweala. [7] Jamison was a member of the college literary magazine The Advocate and social club The Signet Society. [1]

Jamison then attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she earned an MFA in fiction, [8] and Yale University, where she earned a Ph.D. in English literature. At Yale, she worked with Wai Chee Dimock, Amy Hungerford, and Caleb Smith, submitting a dissertation titled "The Recovered: Addiction and Sincerity in 20th-Century American Literature" in 2016. [9]

Career

Jamison's work has been published in Best New American Voices 2008, [10] A Public Space , [11] The New York Review of Books, [12] and Black Warrior Review . [13] She was a 2024–2025 Cullman Center Fellow at the New York Public Library. [14]

Books

Jamison's first novel, The Gin Closet, was published by Free Press in 2010. [15] Jamison has described the book as the account of a "young New Yorker [who] goes looking for an aunt she’s never met...and finds her drinking herself to death in a Nevada trailer. They end up building a precarious but deeply invested life together, trying...to save each other’s lives." [6] It received positive reviews in the San Francisco Chronicle , [16] Vogue , [17] and Publishers Weekly . [15]

Jamison's second book, The Empathy Exams, an essay collection published by Graywolf Press, debuted in 2014 at number 11 on the New York Times bestseller list. [18] The book received wide acclaim from critics, [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] with Olivia Laing writing in The New York Times , "It’s hard to imagine a stronger, more thoughtful voice emerging this year." [24] Each essay uses a mixture of journalistic and memoir approaches that combine Jamison's own experiences and those of the people in various communities to explore the empathetic exchange between people. [25]

Jamison's third book, The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath, was published in 2018 by Little, Brown. Publishers Weekly called it an "unsparing and luminous autobiographical study of alcoholism." [26] It combines Jamison's memoir of her own alcoholism with a survey of others (some of them famous), with a focus on recovery. [1]

Jamison's fourth book, Make It Scream, Make It Burn, was published in 2019 by Little, Brown. It is a collection of 14 essays on the themes of longing, looking and dwelling. [27] [28]

Her 2024 memoir Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story was published to positive review, focusing on her divorce and struggles raising her daughter. [29] [30] [31] In an interview with Vanity Fair , she said, "I love that you connected that idea of splinters and the maybe painful continuities of selfhood, the memories or parts of yourself that you can’t ever fully let go of or fully purge", referencing the idea the book was named after. [32] To promote the book, Jamison began the Splinters book tour with fellow memoirist Mary Karr in February 2024. [33]

Teaching

In the fall of 2015, Jamison joined the faculty at Columbia University School of the Arts. [8] She is assistant professor and director of the nonfiction concentration in writing. [34] Jamison also leads a group of Columbia University MFA students in a Creative Writing Workshop at the Marian House, transitional housing for women in recovery. [35]

Personal life

Jamison lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with a daughter she shares with her ex-husband, the writer Charles Bock. [36] [37] She and Bock divorced in early 2020. [38]

Bibliography

Books

Novels
Nonfiction

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kay Redfield Jamison</span> American bipolar disorder researcher

Kay Redfield Jamison is an American clinical psychologist and writer. Her work has centered on bipolar disorder, which she has had since her early adulthood. She holds the post of the Dalio Professor in Mood Disorders and Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and is an Honorary Professor of English at the University of St Andrews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sloane Crosley</span> American writer (born 1979)

Sloane Crosley is an American writer living in New York City known for her humorous essays, including the collections I Was Told There'd Be Cake, How Did You Get This Number, and Look Alive Out There. She has also worked as a publicist at the Vintage Books division of Random House and as an adjunct professor in Columbia University's Master of Fine Arts program. She graduated from Connecticut College in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracy K. Smith</span> American poet

Tracy K. Smith is an American poet and educator. She served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019. She has published five collections of poetry, winning the Pulitzer Prize for her 2011 volume Life on Mars. Her memoir, Ordinary Light, was published in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ander Monson</span> American writer

Ander Monson is an American novelist, poet, and nonfiction writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maggie Nelson</span> American writer

Maggie Nelson is an American writer. She has been described as a genre-busting writer defying classification, working in autobiography, art criticism, theory, feminism, queerness, sexual violence, the history of the avant-garde, aesthetic theory, philosophy, scholarship, and poetry. Nelson has been the recipient of a 2016 MacArthur Fellowship, a 2012 Creative Capital Literature Fellowship, a 2011 NEA Fellowship in Poetry, and a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Nonfiction. Other honors include the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism and a 2007 Andy Warhol Foundation/Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Bock</span> American writer

Charles Bock is an American writer whose debut novel Beautiful Children was selected by The New York Times as a Notable Book of the Year for 2008, and won the 2009 Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Graywolf Press is an independent, non-profit publisher located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Graywolf Press publishes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deborah Baker</span> American biographer and essayist

Deborah Baker is an American biographer and essayist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terese Svoboda</span> American poet

Terese Svoboda is an American poet, novelist, memoirist, short story writer, librettist, translator, biographer, critic and videomaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eula Biss</span> American non-fiction writer

Eula Biss is an American non-fiction writer who is the author of four books.

Melissa Febos is an American writer and professor. She is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Whip Smart (2010), and the essay collections, Abandon Me (2017) and Girlhood (2021).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Butcher</span>

Amy Butcher is an American writer and essayist. Her memoir, Mothertrucker, was published from Amazon Publishing literary press Little A Books in 2022. Her first book, Visiting Hours: A Memoir of Friendship and Murder, was published in 2015. In August 2019, Makeready Films announced a film adaptation of Mothertrucker will be produced and directed by Jill Soloway and will star Julianne Moore. In February 2020, the Ohio State Arts Council awarded excerpts of Mothertrucker an Individual Excellence Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carmen Maria Machado</span> American writer

Carmen Maria Machado is an American short story author, essayist, and critic best known for Her Body and Other Parties, a 2017 short story collection, and her memoir In the Dream House, which was published in 2019 and won the 2021 Folio Prize. Machado is frequently published in The New Yorker, Granta, Lightspeed Magazine, and other publications. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the Nebula Award for Best Novelette. Her stories have been reprinted in Year's Best Weird Fiction, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, Best Horror of the Year,The New Voices of Fantasy, and Best Women's Erotica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tara Westover</span> American historian and author

Tara Westover is an American memoirist, essayist and historian. Her memoir Educated (2018) debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list and was a finalist for a number of national awards, including the LA Times Book Prize, PEN America's Jean Stein Book Award, and two awards from the National Book Critics Circle Award. The New York Times ranked Educated as one of the 10 Best Books of 2018. Westover was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wayétu Moore</span> Liberian-American author

Wayétu Moore is a Liberian-American author and social entrepreneur. Her debut novel, She Would Be King, was published by Graywolf Press in September 2018, and was named a best book of 2018 by Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Entertainment Weekly & BuzzFeed. The novel was positively reviewed by Time Magazine, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. Moore has published work in The New York Times, The Paris Review, Guernica Magazine, The Atlantic, and other journals. She was awarded a Lannan Literary Fellowship for fiction in 2019. Moore's memoir, The Dragons, The Giant, The Women, was named a 2020 New York Times Notable Book, a Time Magazine 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2020, and a Publishers Weekly Top 5 Nonfiction Books of 2020. In 2011, Moore founded a publishing house and nonprofit organization, One Moore Book, which publishes and distributes books intended for children in countries underrepresented in literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esmé Weijun Wang</span> American writer

Esmé Weijun Wang is an American writer. She is the author of The Border of Paradise (2016) and The Collected Schizophrenias (2019). She is the recipient of a Whiting Award and in 2017, Granta Magazine named her to its decennial list of the Best of Young American Novelists.

<i>The Collected Schizophrenias</i> 2019 essay collection by Esme Weijun Wang

The Collected Schizophrenias is a 2019 collection of essays by Esmé Weijun Wang. Published by Graywolf Press, it won the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, as well as the Whiting Award for Nonfiction.

<i>In the Dream House</i> 2019 memoir by Carmen Maria Machado

In the Dream House is a memoir by Carmen Maria Machado. It was published on November 5, 2019, by Graywolf Press.

Marie Mutsuki Mockett is an American novelist and memoirist.

Rachel Arndt is an American writer. She is the author of the essay collection Beyond Measure.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Barrett, Ruth Shalit (March 18, 2018). "Can Leslie Jamison Top The Empathy Exams With Her Mega-Memoir of Addiction?". Vulture. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  2. ↑ Jamison, Leslie (Dec 27, 2018). "So glad it's speaking to you. The world is full of newness. My middle name is Sierra, by the way. Sending my best". Twitter. Retrieved 2022-05-04.
  3. ↑ Jamison, Leslie (Jun 24, 2018). "I had beige tortellini three nights ago and it WAS my birthday. So thank you for that reminder..." Twitter. Retrieved 2022-05-04.
  4. ↑ "Video: Leslie Jamison and Kay Redfield Jamison in Conversation at Politics & Prose | Graywolf Press". www.graywolfpress.org. Archived from the original on 2015-09-10.
  5. ↑ "Alumni Feature - Harvard University Department of English". Harvard University Department of English. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
  6. 1 2 "THIS BE ART: Leslie Jamison GRAD '13". Yale Daily News. April 9, 2010. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
  7. ↑ "Faculty of Arts and Sciences 2002 - 2003 Student Prize Recipients" (PDF). Harvard.edu. Harvard University. 2003.
  8. 1 2 "WRI An Interview with Nonfiction Professor Leslie Jamison | Columbia - School of the Arts". arts.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
  9. ↑ "Dissertations | English". english.yale.edu. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
  10. ↑ Best New American Voices 2008: John Kulka, Natalie Danford: 9780156031493: Amazon.com: Books
  11. ↑ "Morphology of the Hit : Magazine : A Public Space". apublicspace.org. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  12. ↑ "Leslie Jamison". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 2021-06-15.
  13. ↑ Jamison, Leslie. "In Defense of Saccharin(e)". Black Warrior Review. Archived from the original on 2011-07-18.
  14. ↑ Allen, Brittany. "Please welcome the 2024-25 class of Cullman fellows". Literary Hub. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  15. 1 2 "Fiction Book Review: The Gin Closet by Leslie Jamison, Author . Free Press $25 (274p) ISBN 978-1-4391-5321-5". Publishers Weekly. November 23, 2009. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
  16. ↑ Watrous, Malena (2010-02-28). "A 'River' of secrets". The San Francisco Chronicle.
  17. ↑ O'Grady, Megan (February 11, 2010). "Isn't It Romantic". Vogue. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
  18. ↑ Hertzel, Laurie (2014-04-10). "Graywolf Essay Collection Hits Best-seller List". Star Tribune.
  19. ↑ Garner, Dwight (2014-03-27). "'The Empathy Exams,' Wide-Ranging Essays". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-01-18.
  20. ↑ McAlpin, Heller (April 3, 2014). "'Empathy Exams' Is A Virtuosic Manifesto Of Human Pain". NPR. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
  21. ↑ Dillon, Brian (2014-05-30). "The Empathy Exams: Essays by Leslie Jamison – review". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
  22. ↑ O'Connell, Mark (2014-04-08). "The Flinch". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved 2018-01-18.
  23. ↑ Tuttle, Kate (April 7, 2014). "Book review: "The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 2014-04-13. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
  24. ↑ Laing, Olivia (2014-04-04). "Never Hurts to Ask". New York Times.
  25. ↑ "'Empathy Exams' Is A Virtuosic Manifesto Of Human Pain". NPR.org. Retrieved 2018-07-09.
  26. ↑ "Nonfiction Book Review: The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath by Leslie Jamison. Little, Brown, $30 (544p) ISBN 978-0-316-25961-3". Publishers Weekly. November 13, 2017. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  27. ↑ Jamison, Leslie, 1983- (2019-09-24). Make it scream, make it burn : essays (First ed.). New York. ISBN   978-0-316-25963-7. OCLC   1117773672.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  28. ↑ Waldman, Katy (October 3, 2018). "Leslie Jamison and the Anxiety of Authorship". The New Yorker . Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  29. ↑ "In 'Splinters,' Leslie Jamison explores 'space of grief and freedom'". KCRW. 2024-02-28. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  30. ↑ "Leslie Jamison's "Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story"". Los Angeles Review of Books. 2024-03-01. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  31. ↑ "Book Marks reviews of Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison". Book Marks. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
  32. ↑ "Leslie Jamison Explores "Grief and Love All Twined Together" in Her First Memoir". Vanity Fair. 2024-02-13. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  33. ↑ "The Center for Fiction Presents Leslie Jamison on Splinters with Mary Karr". The Center for Fiction. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  34. ↑ "Leslie Jamison | Columbia - School of the Arts". arts.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  35. ↑ "About". Marian House Blog. 2017-11-26. Retrieved 2018-07-09.
  36. ↑ Alter, Alexandra (2016-04-03). "In Charles Bock's 'Alice & Oliver,' Cancer Is a Highly Personal Villain". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-01-18.
  37. ↑ Jamison, Leslie (2017-04-06). "In the Shadow of a Fairy Tale". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  38. ↑ Jamison, Leslie (26 March 2020). "Since I Became Symptomatic". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
  39. ↑ Jamison, Leslie (2024). Splinters. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN   9780316374880.

Further reading

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.