Nathan Englander

{{Infobox writer

| name = Nathan Englander

| image = Nathan Englander 2017.jpg

| caption = Englander at the 2017 Texas Book Festival

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1970}}

| birth_place = West Hempstead, New York, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| education = Binghamton University (BA)
University of Iowa (MFA)

| genre = short story, novel

| website = {{URL|nathanenglander.com}}

}}

Nathan Englander (born 1970) is an American short story writer and novelist. His debut short story collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, was published by Alfred A. Knopf, in 1999. His second collection, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, won the 2012 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Biography

Nathan Englander was born in West Hempstead on Long Island, New York, and grew up there as part of the Orthodox Jewish community.Gussow, Mel. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04E6DB103DF936A35754C0A96F958260 "Captured in Stories, The World He Left; For Author's Debut, Tales of Orthodox Jews"], The New York Times, July 5, 1999. "Mr. Englander, who grew up in West Hempstead on Long Island, now lives in Jerusalem, and in that is one of the many paradoxes of his life."

He attended the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County for high school and graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton and the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. In the mid-1990s, he moved to Israel, where he lived for five years.[http://www.bupipedream.com/release/20390/binghamton-graduate-writes-with-dark-humor-jewish-wit/ Pipe Dream]{{Cite web |title="Kisufim" – The International Festival of Jewish Writers and Poets. |url=https://www.breuerpress.com/2013/01/20/kisufim-the-international-festival-of-jewish-writers-and-poets/ |access-date=2022-03-13 |website=Breuerpress International |language=hu}}

Englander lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his wife Rachel, and children Olivia and Sammy.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-we-the-north-on-finding-a-home-in-canada/|title = Opinion: We the north: On finding a home in Canada}} He formerly lived in Brooklyn, New York, and Madison, Wisconsin. He taught fiction as a part of CUNY Hunter College's Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing{{Cite web |title=Creative Writing MFA Visiting Writers |url=https://www.hunter.cuny.edu/creativewriting/being.shtml |access-date=2022-09-12 |website=www.hunter.cuny.edu}} and in the MFA program at New York University.{{Cite web |title=New York University in Paris |url=https://www.pw.org/mfa/new_york_university_in_paris |access-date=2022-09-12 |website=Poets & Writers |language=en}}

Literary career

Since the publication of For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, Englander has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Bard Fiction Prize, and a fellowship at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/scholars/pastfellows.html. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302190658/http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/scholars/pastfellows.html |date=2009-03-02 }} Four of his short stories have appeared in editions of The Best American Short Stories: "The Gilgul of Park Avenue" appeared in the 2000 edition, with guest editor E.L. Doctorow, "How We Avenged the Blums" appeared in the 2006 edition, guest edited by Ann Patchett, "Free Fruit for Young Widows" appeared in the 2011 edition, guest edited by Geraldine Brooks, and "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank" appeared in the 2012 edition, guest edited by Tom Perrotta. Another story in the collection, "The Twenty-Seventh Man," debuted as a play in November, 2012,{{Cite web |last=McGibbon |first=Andrew C. |title=The Public Theater Announces 2011-12 Season - The AndyGram |url=https://theandygram.com/Broadway-Press-Release-Retweet/2010-11-Theatre-Press-Releases/The-Public-Theater-Announces-2011-12-Season.html?print=1&tmpl=component |access-date=2022-03-13 |website=theandygram.com |language=en-gb}} the subject of a radio program featuring audio of a reading by actor Michael Stuhlbarg.{{cite web | url = http://www.blubrry.com/selectedshorts/1584859/the-twenty-seventh-man/ | publisher = Public Radio International | work = Selected Shorts | title = 'The 27th Man' | date = 2012-11-04 | accessdate = 2012-11-04}}

The Ministry of Special Cases, Englander's follow-up to his debut collection, was released on April 24, 2007. The novel is set in 1976 in Buenos Aires during Argentina's "Dirty War" and has been described as "an impeccably paced, historically accurate novel which is alternatively side-splitting and frighteningly macabre."Nolan, Val. [http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2007/08/26/story26013.asp "Darkly comic tale of family in Argentina"], The Sunday Business Post, August 26, 2007. Accessed August 16, 2008. Englander has said of his novel: "... I resisted calling it a political book, in that it wasn’t my intent—that is, I had no corrupting (as I’d see it) preconceived position that I was pushing. There’s a lot of politics in my novel, because it’s central to the world of that novel."Galchen, Rivka. [http://bombmagazine.org/article/3210/nathan-englander-rivka-galchen "Nathan Englander & Rivka Galchen"]. BOMB Magazine, September, 2007. Retrieved August 28, 2017.

Englander's third book, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, a short story collection, was released on February 7, 2012.{{Cite web |title=What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander: 9780307949608 {{!}} PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/217135/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-anne-frank-by-nathan-englander/ |access-date=2022-03-13 |website=PenguinRandomhouse.com |language=en-US}} The title story was featured in the December 12, 2011 issue of The New Yorker,{{Cite magazine |date=2011-12-05 |title=What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/12/12/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-anne-frank |access-date=2022-03-13 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US}} and the book won the 2012 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

In 2017, Englander was announced as juror for the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize."Introducing the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize Jury". Scotiabank Giller Prize, http://www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/introducing-the-2017-scotiabank-giller-prize-jury/ January 16, 2017.

Awards and critical acclaim

2000 - PEN/Malamud Award
2012 - Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award

Published works

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges New York Knopf 1999. {{ISBN|9780375404924}}, {{OCLC|245836139}}
The Ministry of Special Cases New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. {{ISBN|9780375404931}}, {{OCLC|938286689}}
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank New York : Knopf, 2012. {{ISBN|9780307958709}}, {{OCLC|782137235}}
Dinner at the Center of the Earth New York, NY : Alfred A. Knopf, 2017. {{ISBN|9781524732738}}, {{OCLC|1002660851}}
Kaddish.com New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2019. {{ISBN|9781524732752}}, {{OCLC|1084694484}}

References

External links

[https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/8116/nathan-englander Nathan Englander's page on Penguin Random House website]
[http://www.bupipedream.com/release/20390/binghamton-graduate-writes-with-dark-humor-jewish-wit/ Profile of Nathan Englander] and his time at Binghamton University in Pipe Dream (newspaper)
[https://www.pw.org/content/relief_unbearable_pressure_profile_nathan_englander_0?article_page=1 For the Relief of Unbearable Pressure: A Profile of Nathan Englander]
[http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw/bw070906nathan_englander Radio Interview on Bookworm]
[http://nathanenglander.com/ Nathan Englander's website]
{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120609032232/http://www.oxonianreview.org/wp/re-carving/ Review of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank in The Oxonian Review]}}

Stories online:

[https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/08/how-we-avenged-the-blums/4113/ 'How We Avenged the Blums' in Atlantic Monthly]
[https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/99mar/gilgul.htm 'The Gilgul of Park Avenue' in Atlantic Monthly]
[http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/05/17/100517fi_fiction_englander?currentPage=all 'Free Fruit for Young Widows' in The New Yorker]

Category:1970 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:21st-century American short story writers

Category:American academics of English literature

Category:American expatriates in Israel

Category:American expatriate writers in Canada

Category:American male novelists

Category:American male short story writers

Category:Binghamton University alumni