Lauren Belfer

Lauren Belfer was born in Rochester, New York and grew up in Buffalo, New York, where she attended the Buffalo Seminary.{{cite web|url=http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/496|publisher=boardingschoolreview.com|title=Buffalo Seminary Profile | Buffalo, New York (NY)|access-date=2016-11-19}} The school would later serve as the basis for the girls' school depicted in her debut novel, City Of Light, about Buffalo, NY during the Pan-American Exposition.

Belfer majored in Medieval Studies at Swarthmore College (graduated 1975), has an M.F.A. from Columbia University, and worked as a file clerk at an art gallery, a paralegal, an assistant photo editor at a newspaper, a fact checker at magazines, and as a researcher and associate producer at CBS News and on documentary films. {{Citation needed|date=February 2018}}

She is married to noted musicologist Michael Marissen and lives in Greenwich Village, New York City. She has one child, Tristan.

Her debut novel, City Of Light, was a New York Times bestseller{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/11/05/bsp/paperfictioncompare.html?scp=17&sq=lauren%20belfer&st=cse|work=The New York Times|title=Independents/Chain Bestseller List|access-date=2016-11-19}} as well as a number one Book Sense pick, a Barnes & Noble Discover Award nominee, a New York Times Notable Book,{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/12/05/reviews/notable-fiction.html|work=The New York Times|title=Notable Books of the Year|access-date=2016-11-19}} a Library Journal Best Book,{{Cite web|url=http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA156099.html|title=Library Journal}} a Main Selection of the Book-Of-The-Month Club, and a bestseller in Great Britain.{{cite web|url=http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/About.aspx?authorid=32297|publisher=harpercollins.com|title=Author Listings: HarperCollins Publishers|access-date=2016-11-19}} It has been translated into seven languages and adapted into a stage play{{cite web|url=http://www.buffalospreemagazine.com/archives/2001_0708/070801cityoflight.html|publisher=buffalospreemagazine.com|title=Buffalo Spree Magazine|access-date=2016-11-19}} by Anthony Clarvoe.

Her second novel, A Fierce Radiance, is a historical thriller that follows the development of penicillin during World War II in New York City. It was published by HarperCollins in June 2010. This novel was named one of the best novels of 2010 by The Washington Post{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/10/AR2010121003240.html|newspaper=The Washington Post |title=The best novels of 2010 |date=December 17, 2010 |access-date=November 16, 2017}} and it was one of the year's five best mysteries for NPR.{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2010/12/15/131728640/murder-they-wrote-the-year-in-mysteries |publisher=NPR |title=Murder, They Wrote: The Year In Mysteries |date=December 15, 2010 |access-date=November 16, 2017}} The paperback edition was released in March 2011.

Her third novel, And After The Fire, is a powerful and passionate novel inspired by historical events about two women, one European and one American, and the mysterious choral masterpiece by Johann Sebastian Bach that changes both of their lives. It has been compared to A.S. Byatt's Possession and received a starred review from Booklist.{{Cite book|url=http://www.booklistonline.com/And-After-the-Fire-Lauren-Belfer/pid=7973364|title = After the Fire, by Lauren Belfer | Booklist Online}} USA Today gave And After The Fire a 4-star review, writing that the novel "swells with life’s great themes—love, death, family and faith—and the insistent, dark music of loss.”{{Cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2016/05/01/after-the-fire-lauren-belfer-book-review/83494202/|title = Lauren Belfer burns bright in searing 'Fire'|website = USA Today}} The New Yorker called And After The Fire "provocative."{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/30/the-year-of-the-runaways-and-after-the-fire-the-road-taken-the-genius-of-birds-briefly-noted|title=Briefly Noted Book Reviews|magazine=The New Yorker|date=22 May 2016}} It was published and released by HarperCollins, on May 3, 2016 and was awarded a National Jewish Book Award in January 2017.{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/2016-njba-press-release |title=2016 National Jewish Book Awards Announced |publisher=Jewish Book Council |date=January 11, 2017 |access-date=November 13, 2017}}

In May 2016, Belfer and Marissen were profiled in The New York Times. In the article, they discuss their working process, Bach, and writing a novel with musical accuracy.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/arts/music/a-literary-couple-grapple-with-bach-and-his-god.html |author=James R. Oestreich |author-link=James R. Oestreich |title=A Literary Couple Grapple With Bach and His God |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 25, 2016 |access-date=November 12, 2017}}

In January 2017, Belfer and Marissen were interviewed by Michael Enright for the CBC radio program "Sunday Edition."{{cite web| url = http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/american-hypocrisy-on-russian-hacking-why-young-men-an-over-the-phone-book-club-bach-and-anti-semitism-1.3919404/was-j-s-bach-anti-semitic-1.3922936| title = Was J.S. Bach anti-Semitic? {{!}} CBC Radio}}

Belfer's fiction has also been published in the Michigan Quarterly Review,{{Cite web|url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=mqrarchive;cc=mqrarchive;rgn=full%20text;idno=act2080.0031.002;didno=act2080.0031.002;view=image;seq=00000130;node=act2080.0031.002%3A18|title = Michigan quarterly review: Vol. 31, No. 2|year = 2000}} Shenandoah, and Henfield Prize Stories. Her nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times Book Review,{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/04/books/books-in-brief-fiction-793736.html?scp=3&sq=lauren%20belfer&st=cse|work=The New York Times|title=Books in Brief: Fiction - The New York Times|date=4 May 1997|access-date=2016-11-19|last1=Belfer|first1=Lauren}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/30/books/books-in-brief-fiction-218154.html?scp=10&sq=lauren+belfer&st=nyt|work=The New York Times|title=Books in Brief: Fiction - The New York Times|date=30 March 1997|access-date=2016-11-19|last1=Belfer|first1=Lauren}} the Washington Post Book World,{{cite web|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/1149373701.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Oct+22%2C+2006&author=Reviewed+by+Lauren+Belfer&pub=The+Washington+Post&edition=&startpage=T.3&desc=Murder%2C+He+Wired%3B+A+century+ago%2C+new+technology+helped+catch+a+killer+at+sea.|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120713230011/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/1149373701.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Oct+22,+2006&author=Reviewed+by+Lauren+Belfer&pub=The+Washington+Post&edition=&startpage=T.3&desc=Murder,+He+Wired;+A+century+ago,+new+technology+helped+catch+a+killer+at+sea.|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 13, 2012|publisher=pqasb.pqarchiver.com|title=Murder, He Wired|access-date=2016-11-19}}{{cite web|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/943017171.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Dec+18%2C+2005&author=Reviewed+by+Lauren+Belfer&pub=The+Washington+Post&edition=&startpage=T.06&desc=Our+Bodies%2C+Ourselves%3B+Feisty%2C+liberated+women+clash+with+a+religious+bigot+in+Gilded+Age+New+York.|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120715121234/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/943017171.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Dec+18,+2005&author=Reviewed+by+Lauren+Belfer&pub=The+Washington+Post&edition=&startpage=T.06&desc=Our+Bodies,+Ourselves;+Feisty,+liberated+women+clash+with+a+religious+bigot+in+Gilded+Age+New+York.|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 15, 2012|publisher=pqasb.pqarchiver.com|title=Our Bodies, Ourselves|access-date=2016-11-19}} the Christian Science Monitor, and elsewhere.

Belfer was interviewed as an author/historian for the PBS documentary on Elbert Hubbard entitled Elbert Hubbard: An American Original.{{cite web| url = https://www.pbs.org/wned/elbert-hubbard/| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091126034539/http://www.pbs.org/wned/elbert-hubbard| archive-date = 2009-11-26| title = Elbert Hubbard: An American Original {{!}} PBS| website = PBS}}

• 2016: National Jewish Book Award for And After The Fire{{Cite web|url=https://www.librarything.com/bookaward/National+Jewish+Book+Award|title=National Jewish Book Award {{!}} Book awards {{!}} LibraryThing|website=www.librarything.com|access-date=2020-01-18}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.laurenbelfer.com/ Lauren Belfer Official Website]
• [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/688581/ashton-hall-by-lauren-belfer/ Penguin Random House - Ashton Hall]
• [http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/32297/Lauren_Belfer/index.aspx HarperCollins]
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/03/theater/revisions-to-the-barricades-for-an-idea-then-now-and-always.html?scp=1&sq=&pagewanted=1 Further reading about City Of Light]
• [https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/02/books/books-of-the-times-illuminating-dark-secrets-in-victorian-buffalo.html?scp=5&sq=lauren+belfer&st=nyt City Of Light - NYTimes Review]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080306060104/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,991224,00.html City Of Light - Time Magazine Review]
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/books/review/Scarf-t.html?ref=books A Fierce Radiance - NYTimes Review]
• [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/06/AR2010080605689.html?wprss=rss_print/bookworld A Fierce Radiance - Washington Post Review]
• [http://www.booklistonline.com/And-After-the-Fire-Lauren-Belfer/pid=7973364 And After the Fire - Booklist Starred Review]

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Category:Living people

Category:Writers from Buffalo, New York

Category:Buffalo Seminary alumni

Category:Swarthmore College alumni

Category:Columbia University alumni

Category:People from Greenwich Village

Category:Writers from Manhattan

Category:Jewish American novelists

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:21st-century American Jews