Leslie Jamison

Jamison was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. Her parents are Joanne Leslie, a nutritionist and former professor of public health, and economist and global health researcher Dean Jamison; she is the niece of clinical psychologist and writer Kay Redfield Jamison.{{cite web |url=https://www.graywolfpress.org/blogs/video-leslie-jamison-and-kay-redfield-jamison-conversation-politics-prose |title=Video: Leslie Jamison and Kay Redfield Jamison in Conversation at Politics & Prose {{!}} Graywolf Press |website=www.graywolfpress.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910082314/https://www.graywolfpress.org/blogs/video-leslie-jamison-and-kay-redfield-jamison-conversation-politics-prose |archive-date=2015-09-10}} Jamison grew up with two older brothers. Her parents divorced when she was 11, after which she lived with her mother.

Jamison attended Harvard College, where she majored in English and graduated in 2004.{{Cite news|url=https://english.fas.harvard.edu/why-english/alumni-feature/|title=Alumni Feature - Harvard University Department of English|work=Harvard University Department of English|access-date=2018-01-18|language=en-US}} Her senior thesis dealt with incest in the work of William Faulkner.{{Cite news|url=https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2010/04/09/this-be-art-leslie-jamison-grad-13/|title=THIS BE ART: Leslie Jamison GRAD '13|date=April 9, 2010|work=Yale Daily News|access-date=2018-01-18|language=en}} While an undergraduate, she won the Edward Eager Memorial Fund prize in creative writing, an award also won by her classmate, writer Uzodimna Iweala.{{Cite web|url=https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/prize-office/files/2002-03_1.pdf|title=Faculty of Arts and Sciences 2002 - 2003 Student Prize Recipients|date=2003|website=Harvard.edu|publisher=Harvard University}} Jamison was a member of the college literary magazine The Advocate and social club The Signet Society.

Jamison then attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she earned an MFA in fiction,{{Cite web|url=https://arts.columbia.edu/news/wri-interview-nonfiction-professor-leslie-jamison|title=WRI An Interview with Nonfiction Professor Leslie Jamison {{!}} Columbia - School of the Arts|website=arts.columbia.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-01-18}} and Yale University, where she earned a Ph.D. in English literature. At Yale, she worked with Wai Chee Dimock, Amy Hungerford, and Caleb Smith, submitting a dissertation titled "The Recovered: Addiction and Sincerity in 20th-Century American Literature" in 2016.{{Cite web|url=https://english.yale.edu/graduate/dissertations|title=Dissertations {{!}} English|website=english.yale.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-01-18}}

Jamison's work has been published in Best New American Voices 2008,[https://www.amazon.com/Best-New-American-Voices-2008/dp/0156031493 Best New American Voices 2008: John Kulka, Natalie Danford: 9780156031493: Amazon.com: Books] A Public Space,{{Cite web |title=Morphology of the Hit : Magazine : A Public Space |url=https://apublicspace.org/magazine/detail/morphology-of-the-hit |access-date=2022-05-17 |website=apublicspace.org}} The New York Review of Books,{{Cite web|title=Leslie Jamison|url=https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/leslie-jamison/|access-date=2021-06-15|website=The New York Review of Books|language=en}} and Black Warrior Review.{{cite news|url=http://www.webdelsol.com/bwr/saccharin.html|title=In Defense of Saccharin(e)|last=Jamison|first=Leslie|work=Black Warrior Review|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718012536/http://www.webdelsol.com/bwr/saccharin.html|archive-date=2011-07-18|url-status=dead}} She was a 2024–2025 Cullman Center Fellow at the New York Public Library.{{cite web |last1=Allen |first1=Brittany |title=Please welcome the 2024-25 class of Cullman fellows. |url=https://lithub.com/please-welcome-the-2024-25-class-of-cullman-fellows/ |website=Literary Hub |date=23 April 2024 |access-date=24 April 2024}}

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Jamison's first novel, The Gin Closet, was published by Free Press in 2010. Jamison has described the book as the account of a "young New Yorker [who] goes looking for an aunt she’s never met...and finds her drinking herself to death in a Nevada trailer. They end up building a precarious but deeply invested life together, trying...to save each other’s lives." It received positive reviews in the San Francisco Chronicle,{{cite news|url=https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/The-Gin-Closet-by-Leslie-Jamison-3271813.php | work=The San Francisco Chronicle | first=Malena | last=Watrous | title=A 'River' of secrets | date=2010-02-28}} Vogue,{{cite news|url=https://www.vogue.com/article/vd-books-isnt-it-romantic|title=Isn't It Romantic|last=O'Grady|first=Megan|date=February 11, 2010|work=Vogue|access-date=January 17, 2018}} and Publishers Weekly.{{Cite news|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4391-5321-5|title=Fiction Book Review: The Gin Closet by Leslie Jamison, Author . Free Press $25 (274p) ISBN 978-1-4391-5321-5|date=November 23, 2009|work=Publishers Weekly|access-date=2018-01-18|language=en}}

Jamison's second book, The Empathy Exams, an essay collection published by Graywolf Press, debuted in 2014 at number 11 on the New York Times bestseller list.{{cite news|url=http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/blogs/254764531.html | work=Star Tribune | first=Laurie | last=Hertzel | title=Graywolf Essay Collection Hits Best-seller List | date=2014-04-10}} The book received wide acclaim from critics,{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/books/the-empathy-exams-essays-by-leslie-jamison.html|title='The Empathy Exams,' Wide-Ranging Essays|last=Garner|first=Dwight|date=2014-03-27|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-01-18|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2014/04/03/297823566/empathy-exams-is-a-virtuosic-manifesto-of-human-pain|title='Empathy Exams' Is A Virtuosic Manifesto Of Human Pain|last=McAlpin|first=Heller|date=April 3, 2014|work=NPR|access-date=2018-01-18|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/30/empathy-exams-leslie-jamison-review|title=The Empathy Exams: Essays by Leslie Jamison – review|last=Dillon|first=Brian|date=2014-05-30|website=the Guardian|access-date=2018-01-18}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/04/leslie_jamison_s_essay_collection_the_empathy_exams_reviewed.html|title=The Flinch|last=O'Connell|first=Mark|date=2014-04-08|work=Slate|access-date=2018-01-18|language=en-US|issn=1091-2339}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2014/04/06/book-review-the-empathy-exams-leslie-jamison/67IY4MbjcZSBFkv52jX6wM/story.html|title=Book review: The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison|last=Tuttle|first=Kate|date=April 7, 2014|work=The Boston Globe|access-date=2018-01-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413111953/http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2014/04/06/book-review-the-empathy-exams-leslie-jamison/67IY4MbjcZSBFkv52jX6wM/story.html|archive-date=2014-04-13|url-status=dead}} with Olivia Laing writing in The New York Times, "It’s hard to imagine a stronger, more thoughtful voice emerging this year."{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/books/review/the-empathy-exams-by-leslie-jamison.html | work=New York Times | first=Olivia | last=Laing | title=Never Hurts to Ask | date=2014-04-04}} Each essay uses a mixture of journalistic and memoir approaches that combine Jamison's own experiences and those of the people in various communities to explore the empathetic exchange between people.{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2014/04/03/297823566/empathy-exams-is-a-virtuosic-manifesto-of-human-pain|title='Empathy Exams' Is A Virtuosic Manifesto Of Human Pain|work=NPR.org|access-date=2018-07-09|language=en}}

Jamison's third book, The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath, was published in 2018 by Little, Brown. Publishers Weekly called it an "unsparing and luminous autobiographical study of alcoholism."{{Cite news|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-316-25961-3|title=Nonfiction Book Review: The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath by Leslie Jamison. Little, Brown, $30 (544p) ISBN 978-0-316-25961-3|date=November 13, 2017|work=Publishers Weekly|access-date=2018-01-17|language=en}} It combines Jamison's memoir of her own alcoholism with a survey of others (some of them famous), with a focus on recovery.

Jamison's fourth book, Make It Scream, Make It Burn, was published in 2019 by Little, Brown. It is a collection of 14 essays on the themes of longing, looking and dwelling.{{Cite book|title=Make it scream, make it burn : essays|last=Jamison, Leslie, 1983-|isbn=978-0-316-25963-7|edition=First|location=New York|oclc=1117773672|date = 2019-09-24}}{{Cite magazine|last=Waldman|first=Katy|date=October 3, 2018|title=Leslie Jamison and the Anxiety of Authorship|magazine=The New Yorker|url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/leslie-jamison-and-the-anxiety-of-authorship|access-date=January 13, 2022}}

Her 2024 memoir Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story was published to positive reviews, focusing on her divorce and struggles raising her daughter.{{Cite web |date=2024-02-28 |title=In 'Splinters,' Leslie Jamison explores 'space of grief and freedom' |url=https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/border-food-leslie-jamison-joshua-tree/splinters-love |access-date=2024-03-07 |website=KCRW |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2024-03-01 |title=Leslie Jamison's "Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story" |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/av/leslie-jamisons-splinters-another-kind-of-love-story |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books}}{{Cite web |title=Book Marks reviews of Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison |url=https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/splinters-another-kind-of-love-story// |access-date=April 8, 2024 |website=Book Marks |language=en-US}} In an interview with Vanity Fair, she said, "I love that you connected that idea of splinters and the maybe painful continuities of selfhood, the memories or parts of yourself that you can’t ever fully let go of or fully purge", referencing the idea the book was named after.{{Cite magazine |date=2024-02-13 |title=Leslie Jamison Explores "Grief and Love All Twined Together" in Her First Memoir |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/leslie-jamison-splinters |access-date=2024-03-07 |magazine=Vanity Fair |language=en-US}} To promote the book, Jamison began the Splinters book tour with fellow memoirist Mary Karr in February 2024.{{Cite web |title=The Center for Fiction Presents Leslie Jamison on Splinters with Mary Karr |url=https://centerforfiction.org/event/the-center-for-fiction-presents-leslie-jamison-on-splinters-with-mary-karr |access-date=2024-03-07 |website=The Center for Fiction |language=en-US}}

In the fall of 2015, Jamison joined the faculty at Columbia University School of the Arts. She is assistant professor and director of the nonfiction concentration in writing.{{Cite web|url=https://arts.columbia.edu/profiles/leslie-jamison|title=Leslie Jamison {{!}} Columbia - School of the Arts|website=arts.columbia.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-01-17}} Jamison also leads a group of Columbia University MFA students in a Creative Writing Workshop at the Marian House, transitional housing for women in recovery.{{Cite news|url=https://columbiamarianhouse.wordpress.com/about/|title=About|date=2017-11-26|work=Marian House Blog|access-date=2018-07-09|language=en-US}}

Jamison lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with a daughter she shares with her ex-husband, the writer Charles Bock.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/04/books/04bock.html|title=In Charles Bock's 'Alice & Oliver,' Cancer Is a Highly Personal Villain|last=Alter|first=Alexandra|date=2016-04-03|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-01-18|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/06/magazine/in-the-shadow-of-a-fairy-tale.html|title=In the Shadow of a Fairy Tale|last=Jamison|first=Leslie|date=2017-04-06|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-01-17|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} She and Bock divorced in early 2020.{{cite web |last1=Jamison |first1=Leslie |title=Since I Became Symptomatic |date=26 March 2020 |url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/03/26/since-i-became-symptomatic/ |publisher=The New York Review of Books |access-date=2020-08-24}} She is a supporter of the boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, including publishers and literary festivals. She was an original signatory of the manifesto "Refusing Complicity in Israel's Literary Institutions".{{Cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/forms/d/11KaIIavJWoaoyA5d969dk1MbgH6mRgaC7FTmNb-2tpw/viewform?pli=1&pli=1&pli=1&edit_requested=true/|title=Refusing Complicity in Israel's Literary Institutions|access-date= October 29, 2024}}

{{Incomplete list|date=July 2018}}{{bots|deny=Citation bot}}

;Novels

• The Gin Closet (Free, 2010)

;Nonfiction

• The Empathy Exams (Graywolf, 2014)
• 52 Blue (2014)
• Such Mean Estate (2015)
• The Recovering: Intoxication and its Aftermath (Little, Brown, 2018)
• Make It Scream, Make It Burn (Little, Brown, 2019)
• Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story (Little, Brown, 2024){{Cite book |last=Jamison |first=Leslie |title=Splinters |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=2024 |isbn=9780316374880}}

• {{cite journal |author=Jamison, Leslie |date=February 13–20, 2023 |title=Not fooling anyone : the dubious rise of imposter syndrome |department=Annals of Psychology |journal=The New Yorker |volume=99 |issue=1 |pages=26–32 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/13/the-dubious-rise-of-impostor-syndrome }}Online version is titled "Why everyone feels like they're faking it".

;The recovering

• {{cite journal |author=Greenberg, Gary |date=April 2, 2018 |title=Whiskey and ink : the stories that writers tell us—and themselves—about drinking |department=The Critics. Books |journal=The New Yorker |volume=94 |issue=7 |pages=84–89 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/02/leslie-jamisons-the-recovering-and-the-stories-we-tell-about-drinking }}Online version is titled "Leslie Jamison's 'The Recovering' and the stories we tell about drinking".

———————

;Bibliography notes

{{reflist|40em|group=lower-alpha}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite news|author=Greenberg, Gary|date=April 2, 2018 |title=Leslie Jamison's "The Recovering" and the Stories We Tell About Drinking|magazine=The New Yorker|volume=94|issue=7|pages=84–89|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/02/leslie-jamisons-the-recovering-and-the-stories-we-tell-about-drinking|accessdate=January 13, 2022}}

• [https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/emergency-room-wait-times-sexism/410515/ How Doctors Take Women's Pain Less Seriously] in The Atlantic – described in an interview in The Empathy Exams

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Category:1983 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American essayists

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:American women academics

Category:American women novelists

Category:Columbia University faculty

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni

Category:The New Yorker people

Category:Novelists from New York City

Category:Writers from Brooklyn

Category:Writers from Los Angeles

Category:Writers from Washington, D.C.

Category:Yale University alumni