Jill Eisenstadt

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Jill Eisenstadt (born June 15, 1963) is an American novelist and freelance journalist.

Eisenstadt was born in Queens, New York and attended Bennington College, graduating in 1985. She was considered part of the 'Literary Brat Pack' whose members included Bret Easton Ellis, Jay McInerney, and Tama Janowitz, though she publicly distanced herself from that group. [1] Like her contemporaries at Bennington, she wrote in a sparse minimalist style influenced by such writers as Raymond Carver and Joan Didion.

Her first novel, From Rockaway, published in 1987, was submitted as her MFA thesis while at Columbia University. The book is a coming-of-age tale about four teenagers from Rockaway Beach in Queens. The protagonist, Alex, escapes the working-class milieux with a scholarship to fictional Camden College (a stand-in for Bennington) while her three friends work menial jobs and live in the now, spending summers lifeguarding and winters doing odd jobs. Eventually the foursome reunites at a beachside party and comes to terms with their diverging lives. From Rockaway was optioned by film director Sydney Pollack.

Eisenstadt followed with a second novel, Kiss Out, in 1991. In addition to her longer works, she has contributed short stories, essays, articles, interviews, and book reviews to such publications as the New York Times, Vogue, Mademoiselle, New York Magazine, BKYLN, BOMB and Glamour. She also collaborated with her sister Debra on the screenplays for the independent films Daydream Believer (2001) and The Limbo Room (2006).