Joshua Braff
{{short description|American writer|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2013}}
{{Cleanup-PR|date=November 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Joshua Braff
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1967|10|11}}
| birth_place = South Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
| nationality = American
| education = Columbia High School
New York University (BS)
Saint Mary's College of California (MFA)
| other_names = Josh Braff
| occupation = Writer
| years_active = 1991–present
| relatives = {{unbulleted list|Zach Braff (brother)|Jessica Kirson (stepsister)}}
| website = {{URL|https://joshuabraff.com}}
}}
Joshua Braff (born October 11, 1967) is an American writer.
Biography
Braff's first novel, The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green, described as a Jewish coming of age tale,{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=12853 |title=Another Braff Tale of Jewish Ennui |accessdate=February 13, 2008 |date=September 17, 2004 |first=Naomi |last=Pfefferman |newspaper=The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061018222133/http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=12853 |archivedate=October 18, 2006 }} was published in 2004 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/22/DDGLI8S0NC1.DTL |title=Joshua Braff's First Novel Taps into the Wild, Hilarious Mind of a 13-year-old. Comparisons to J.D. Salinger are Welcome. |accessdate=February 13, 2008 |date=September 22, 2004 |first=Heidi
|last=Benson |newspaper=The San Francisco Chronicle |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060428061138/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=%2Fchronicle%2Farchive%2F2004%2F09%2F22%2FDDGLI8S0NC1.DTL |archivedate=April 28, 2006}} The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green was an ALA Notable Book, named to Booklist's Top ten 1st Novels List, and chosen for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program. His second novel Peep Show was published by Algonquin in 2010. In a four-star review of Peep Show, People said, “Braff skillfully illuminates the failures and charms of a broken family. That teen longing for adults to act their age haunts long after the final page.”
Braff's third novel, The Daddy Diaries, was published on May 5, 2015. Novelist Adam Langer praised the novel: “Honest and heartfelt, Joshua Braff’s novel about the perils of twenty-first century fatherhood contains more moments of truth than several hundred bestselling memoirs or self-help books. The wry humor and compulsive readability may remind readers of Jonathan Tropper or Nick Hornby, but the hard-won wisdom and disarming vulnerability in “The Daddy Diaries” is all Braff's own.”
Braff grew up in South Orange, New Jersey and attended Columbia High School.[https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/joshua-braff-mfa-fiction-97 Joshua Braff, MFA Fiction '97] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150911052341/http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/joshua-braff-mfa-fiction-97 |date=September 11, 2015 }}, Saint Mary's College of California. Accessed February 10, 2020. "Joshua Braff grew up in South Orange, New Jersey, and went to Columbia High School." He graduated from New York University in 1991 with a BS in Education. In 1995 Braff entered Saint Mary's College of California where he earned an MFA in creative writing/fiction. He contributed a short work titled "Exit 15W" to the collection of shorts about New Jersey entitled Living on the Edge of the World after his hometown of South Orange.{{cite news |url=http://www.njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/122007/ltWhatExit.html |title=What Exit? |accessdate=February 13, 2008 |date=December 20, 2007 |first=Judy |last=Wilson |newspaper=New Jersey Jewish News |location=River Edge |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130919223437/http://njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/122007/ltWhatExit.html |archive-date=September 19, 2013 |url-status=dead}}
Joshua is the older brother of actor-director Zach Braff. His father was born Jewish and his mother, originally Protestant, converted to Judaism.{{cite news| url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/books/questions-answers-a-conversation-with-joshua-braff-1.288221| title=Questions & Answers / A Conversation With Joshua Braff| date=May 4, 2010| newspaper=Haaretz| location=Tel Aviv| accessdate=May 19, 2018}}{{cite web |url=http://www.schmoozemag.com/?p%3D281 |title=Q&A with Zach Braff |accessdate=March 9, 2013 |website=Schmooze Magazine |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131210054204/http://www.schmoozemag.com/?p=281 |archivedate=December 10, 2013}}{{cite news| last=Bloom| first=Nate| title=Jewish Stars: Mitt, Zach and Salem witches?| newspaper=Cleveland Jewish News| date=March 15, 2012| url=https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/archives/jewish-stars-mitt-zach-and-salem-witches/article_17d555b6-6ee7-11e1-a34a-0019bb2963f4.html| accessdate=19 May 2018}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{official website }}
- {{LCAuth|n2004034705|Joshua Braff|2|}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Braff, Joshua}}
Category:21st-century American novelists
Category:Jewish American novelists
Category:Place of birth missing (living people)
Category:American male novelists
Category:21st-century American male writers
Category:Columbia High School (New Jersey) alumni
Category:Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development alumni
Category:Writers from South Orange, New Jersey
Category:Saint Mary's College of California alumni
Category:21st-century American Jews
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