Allen Kurzweil

{{Infobox writer

| name = Allen Kurzweil

| image = Allen_Kurzweil_Wiki2007.jpg

| caption = Kurzweil

| pseudonym =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|mf=yes|1960|12|16}}

| death_date =

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| occupation = {{flatlist|

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| nationality = American, French

| alma_mater = Aiglon College
Yale University
University of Rome

| subject =

| movement =

| notableworks = A Case of Curiosities, Leon and the Spitting Image, Whipping Boy

| signature =

| website = {{URL|http://www.allenkurzweil.com}}

}}

Allen Kurzweil (born December 16, 1960) is an American novelist, journalist, editor, and lecturer. He is the author of four works of fiction, most notably A Case of Curiosities, as well as a memoir Whipping Boy. He is also the co-inventor, with his son Max, of Potato Chip Science, an eco-friendly experiment kit for grade schoolers. He is a cousin of Ray Kurzweil and brother of Vivien Schmidt.

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Life and career

The son of Viennese Jewish refugees, Kurzweil was raised in Europe and the United States. Educated at Aiglon College, Yale University and the University of Rome, he worked for ten years as a journalist in France, Italy, and Australia before settling in the United States.{{cite web|title=Allen Kurzweil Biography|url=https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/672/allen-kurzweil#biography|website=BookBrowse.com|accessdate=3 April 2017}} His first novel, A Case of Curiosities (1992), earned literary honors in England, Ireland, Italy, and France. His second novel, The Grand Complication, was published in 2001. Both works were included in The New York Times annual list of notable books.{{cite news|title=Notable Books of the Year 1992|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/06/books/notable-books-of-the-year-1992.html?pagewanted=all|work=The New York Times|date = 6 December 1992|accessdate=3 April 2017}}{{cite news|title=Notable Books|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/02/books/notable-books.html|work=The New York Times|date=2 December 2001|accessdate=3 April 2017}} Kurzweil has written two award-winning children's books: Leon and the Spitting Image (2003), and Leon and the Champion Chip (2005), and, in 2015, published Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully, an Edgar Award winning "investigative memoir."{{cite web|url= https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mystery-writers-of-america-announces-the-2016-edgar-award-winners-300259718.html |title= Mystery Writers of America Announces the 2016 Edgar Award Winners |author= Mystery Writers of America |work= PR Newswire |date= April 29, 2016 |access-date= December 27, 2023 |archive-date= December 27, 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231227155211/https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mystery-writers-of-america-announces-the-2016-edgar-award-winners-300259718.html |url-status=live}}

As a journalist and essayist, Kurzweil has written articles and reviews for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian, the New Yorker, among other publications. He is also a freelance editor and writing professor. He has conducted seminars, workshops, and master classes in the United States and abroad.{{cite web|title=Memoir with Allen Kurzweil|url=http://underthevolcano.org/?page_id=763|website=Under the Volcano|accessdate=3 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404143345/http://underthevolcano.org/?page_id=763|archive-date=4 April 2017|url-status=dead}} For many years he served on the boards of the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities and the Providence Athenaeum.

Fellowships and awards

Kurzweil has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Program, the Guggenheim Foundation, the New York Public Library Center for Scholars and Writers,{{cite web|last1=Kurzweil|first1=Allen|title=Fellows and their Topics for the Year 1999-2000|url=https://www.nypl.org/node/209465|website=NYPL.org|publisher=New York Public Library|accessdate=3 April 2017}} and the John Nicholas Brown Center for the Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage.

A Case of Curiosities, a finalist for the Prix Médicis and the Irish Times/Aer Lingus International Fiction Prize, received the Premio Grinzane Cavour in 1993. In 1996 he was selected as one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists.{{cite web|title=Granta 54: Best of Young American Novelists Summer 1996|url=https://granta.com/issues/granta-54-best-of-young-american-novelists/|website=grants.com|publisher=Granta|accessdate=3 April 2017}} His memoir, Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully, originally published as a personal history in the New Yorker,{{cite magazine|last1=Kurzweil|first1=Allen|title=Whipping Boy|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/17/whipping-boy|magazine=The New Yorker|date=10 November 2014 |accessdate=17 November 2014}} in 2016 received the Edgar Award in the category of "Best Fact Crime."{{cite web|title=Best Fact Crime|url=http://www.theedgars.com/2016EdgarWinners.pdf|website=TheEdgars.com|publisher=Mystery Writers of America|accessdate=28 April 2016}}

Bibliography

A Case of Curiosities (1992)
The Grand Complication (2001)
Leon and the Spitting Image (2003)
Leon and the Champion Chip (2005)
Potato Chip Science (2010)
Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully (2015)

References

External links

[http://www.allenkurzweil.com Author’s website]
[http://www.leonzeisel.com Author’s children’s book website]
[http://www.potatochipscience.com Author's science kit website]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090114153101/http://ftp.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3330 Kurzweil webcast at Library of Congress]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070411060612/http://booksense.com/people/archive/kurzweilallen.jsp Kurzweil on pocket watches]
[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5180774 Kurzweil NPR interview on potato chips]
[http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw/bw920629alan_kurzweil KCRW Bookworm Interview]
[https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2015/01/20/decades-later-writer-allen-kurzweil-tracks-down-bully-from-his-childhood/jSGbwAz6zry5sql3OnNqLP/story.html Boston Globe interview about Whipping Boy]
[https://www.npr.org/2015/01/18/377750683/finding-a-childhood-bully-and-so-much-more-in-whipping-boy NPR interview about seeking out one's bully]
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-whipping-boy-on-a-40-year-search-for-a-bully-by-allen-kurzweil/2015/01/15/2c304798-8acb-11e4-a085-34e9b9f09a58_story.html Washington Post review of Whipping Boy]