Jedediah Berry
{{short description|American writer|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{infobox writer
|name=Jedediah Berry
|image=Jedediah Berry author photo.jpg
|birth_date={{birth year and age|1977}}
|birth_place=Randolph, Vermont, U.S.
|occupation=Writer
|alma_mater=Bard College
University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts
|awards=Hammett Prize (2009)
Crawford Award (2010)
|website={{URL|https://thirdarchive.net}}
}}
Jedediah Berry (born 1977) is an American writer. He is the author of two novels, The Manual of Detection (2009) and The Naming Song (2024).{{cite web | url=https://torpublishinggroup.com/author/jedediah-berry/ | title=Jedediah Berry, Author at Tor Publishing Group }}
Background and education
Berry was born in Randolph, Vermont, and spent his childhood in Catskill, New York. He attended Bard College, and earned a graduate degree from the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has worked as an editor at Small Beer Press.{{Citation |title=Jedediah Berry: A Stranger Road |date=July 1, 2010 |url=http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2010/07/jedediah-berry-a-stranger-road |work=Locus}}
Work
Berry's first novel, The Manual of Detection, was published by The Penguin Press in 2009. It won the 2009 Hammett Prize{{Cite web |last=Sciandra |first=Mary Frisque and Lisa |title=IACW/NA: Hammett Prize: Past Years |url=http://www.crimewritersna.org/hammett/past.htm |access-date=March 15, 2018 |website=www.crimewritersna.org |archive-date=April 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180429053340/http://www.crimewritersna.org/hammett/past.htm |url-status=dead }} and the 2010 Crawford Award.{{Cite news |date=January 26, 2010 |title=Jedediah Berry Wins Crawford Award |language=en-US |work=Locus Online |url=http://locusmag.com/2010/01/jedediah-berry-wins-crawford-award/ |access-date=March 15, 2018}} Set in an unnamed city, the novel follows file clerk Charles Unwin as he attempts to solve a mystery involving a missing detective and a criminal mastermind operating through people's dreams. He was a 2011 [https://www.jamesmerrillhouse.org/fellows James Merrill House Fellow] in Stonington, CT. Critics have noted that The Manual of Detection combines elements from several genres of fiction, including mystery and fantasy.{{Citation |last=Lo Dico |first=Joy |title=The Manual of Detection, By Jedediah Berry |date=June 20, 2010 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-manual-of-detection-by-jedediah-berry-2004293.html |work=The Independent on Sunday}} Writing for The Guardian, Michael Moorcock situated the book within the tradition of steampunk fiction.{{Citation |last=Moorcock |first=Michael |title=The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry |date=August 22, 2009 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/aug/22/manual-of-detection-jedediah-berry |work=The Guardian}} The New Yorker called it “the kind of mannered fantasy that might result if Wes Anderson were to adapt Kafka.”{{Citation |title=Books Briefly Noted |date=March 9, 2009 |url=http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2009/03/09/090309crbn_brieflynoted4 |magazine=The New Yorker}} A reviewer for The Observer compared it to The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, and described it as “imaginative, fantastical, sometimes inexplicable, labyrinthine and ingenious.”{{Citation |last=Guttridge |first=Peter |title=The Manual of Detection |date=April 5, 2009 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/05/jedediah-berry-manual-of-detection-review |work=The Observer}}
An abridged version of the novel, read by Toby Jones, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in January 2013.{{Cite web |title=ManualOfDetection |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pzvjb |accessdate=April 5, 2015}}
Berry's short stories have appeared in Conjunctions, Chicago Review, Ninth Letter, and other magazines. He has taught at the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and he currently teaches at Bard College.{{Cite web |title=Bard College |url=http://www.bard.edu/academics/faculty/faculty.php?action=details&id=3523}}
Berry published The Family Arcana, a “story in cards” in 2015. It was nominated for the World Fantasy Award.{{cite web | url=https://ninepinpress.com/products/the-family-arcana-a-story-in-cards | title=The Family Arcana }}
Berry’s second novel, The Naming Song , was published by Tor Books in 2024. https://torpublishinggroup.com/the-naming-song/
Notes
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External links
{{commonscat|Jedediah Berry}}
- [http://www.thirdarchive.net/ Jedediah Berry's Website]
- [http://www.bookslut.com/features/2009_04_014317.php Interview] at Bookslut
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Category:21st-century American novelists
Category:American fantasy writers
Category:University of Massachusetts Amherst MFA Program for Poets & Writers alumni
Category:American male novelists
Category:American male short story writers
Category:21st-century American short story writers
Category:People from Catskill, New York