Jonathan Fast

{{short description|American author and social work teacher|bot=PearBOT 5}}

{{Infobox person

|name = Jonathan Fast

|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1948|4|13}}

|birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.

|death_date =

|death_place =

|education = Princeton University (BA)
Columbia University (MSW)
Yeshiva University (PhD)

|spouse = {{plainlist|

{{marriage|Erica Jong|1977|1982|end=div}}
Barbara Fast

}}

|children = 3, including Molly

|relatives = Howard Fast (father)

}}

Jonathan Fast (born April 13, 1948) is an American author and social work teacher.

Life and career

Fast was born in New York City. He attended Princeton University, and earned graduate degrees at Columbia University and Yeshiva University. He has a daughter, Molly Jong-Fast, from his first marriage, to author Erica Jong,{{cite web|url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/02/26/my-mothers-daughter/|title=My Mother's Daughter|author=Jong-Fast, Molly|website=NYBooks.com|publisher=New York Review of Books|access-date=26 February 2019}} and two sons from his marriage to Barbara Fast, a Unitarian minister.

Fast's nonfiction book, Ceremonial Violence: A Psychological Explanation of School Shootings (2008), analyzes five school shootings from a psychological perspective: Cleveland Elementary School shooting (San Diego), the Columbine High School massacre, the 1992 Bard College at Simon's Rock shooting, the 1997 Bethel Regional High School shooting, and the 1997 Pearl High School shooting.{{cite book|author1=Jonathan Fast|title=Ceremonial Violence: A Psychological Explanation of School Shootings|date=4 September 2008|publisher=The Overlook Press|isbn=9781590200476|edition=First|url=https://archive.org/details/ceremonialviolen00fas_9ls|accessdate=1 November 2017|language=English|url-access=registration}}

{{As of|2017}}, Fast was a professor of social work at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University.{{cite web|title=Wurzweiler Professor Jonathan Fast on Bullying and Shame {{!}} Wurzweiler School of Social Work|url=http://blogs.yu.edu/wssw-news/2015/10/26/wurzweiler-professor-jonathan-fast-on-bullying-and-shame/|website=blogs.yu.edu|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222040155/http://blogs.yu.edu/wssw-news/2015/10/26/wurzweiler-professor-jonathan-fast-on-bullying-and-shame/|archivedate=22 February 2017|url-status=live}}

His father, Howard Fast (1914–2003), was the author of many best-selling novels, including Spartacus (1951), which became the basis for the 1960 film of the same name.

Publications

Science fiction
The Secrets of Synchronicity (1977)
Mortal Gods (1978)
The Inner Circle (1979)
Prisoner of the Planets (1980)
The Beast (1981)
Other fiction
The Golden Fire (1986)
The Jade Stalk (1988)
Stolen Time (1990)
The Mesmer Stories
The Stable Boy (2024)
The Doctor's Apprentice (2024
Adaptations
Newsies (1992)
Non-fiction
Ceremonial Violence: a psychological explanation of school shootings (2008). {{ISBN|1-59-020047-0}}
Beyond bullying: breaking the cycle of shame, bullying, and violence (2015). {{ISBN|0-19-938364-2}}