Jerome Charyn

Jerome Charyn
Charyn at the 2015 National Book Festival
Charyn at the 2015 National Book Festival
Born (1937-05-13) May 13, 1937 (age 87)
New York City, U.S.
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • playwright
  • author
EducationColumbia University (BA)
Period1963–present
SpouseLenore Riegel

Jerome Charyn (born May 13, 1937) is an American writer. With nearly 50 published works over a 50-year span, Charyn has a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life, writing in multiple genres.[1]

Michael Chabon calls him "one of the most important writers in American literature".[2] New York Newsday hailed Charyn as "a contemporary American Balzac",[3] and the Los Angeles Times described him as "absolutely unique among American writers".[4]

Charyn's first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, was published in 1964. With Blue Eyes (1975), the debut of detective character Isaac Sidel, Charyn attracted wide attention and acclaim.[5] As of 2017, Charyn has published 37 novels, three memoirs, nine graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year.[6] Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Charyn was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Fiction, 1983. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has been named Commander of Arts and Letter (Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by the French Minister of Culture.

Charyn was Distinguished Professor of Film Studies at the American University of Paris until 2009, when he retired from teaching.

In addition to his writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top 10 percent of players in France. Novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn's book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong".[7]

Charyn lives in Paris and New York City.

  1. ^ "I Am Abraham: A Novel of Lincoln and the Civil War" Norton Books online, 2013.
  2. ^ "Review of The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson" Norton Books online, 2010.
  3. ^ "Bloomsbury" Bloomsbury online, 2010.
  4. ^ "Bloomsbury" Bloomsbury Publishing online, 2010.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Charyn1984 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "NYT Book of the Year" Archived May 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine New York Times Book of the Year online, 2010.
  7. ^ "They Also Serve" The Observer online, July 21, 2002.