Amy Hempel

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Amy Hempel

Born December 14, 1951 (1951-12-14) (age 56)
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Occupation Short story writer, essayist, journalist, professor
Nationality American
Genres Fiction

Amy Hempel (born December 14, 1951) is an American short story writer, journalist, and university professor at Sarah Lawrence College. Hempel, who was born in Chicago, Illinois, is a former student of Gordon Lish, in whose workshop she wrote several of her first stories. Lish was so impressed with her work that he helped her publish her first collection, Reasons to Live (1985), which includes "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried", the first story she ever wrote.[1] Originally published in TriQuarterly in 1983, "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried" is one of the most extensively anthologized stories of the last quarter century.

Hempel has produced three other collections: At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom (1990), which includes the story “The Harvest”; Tumble Home (1997); and The Dog of the Marriage (2005). The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel (2006) gathers all the stories from the four earlier books. She co-edited (with Jim Shepard) Unleashed–Poems by Writers’ Dogs (1995), which includes contributions by Edward Albee, John Irving, Denis Johnson, Gordon Lish, Arthur Miller, and many others. She writes articles, essays, and short stories for such publications as Vanity Fair, Interview, Bomb, GQ, ELLE, Harper's Magazine, The Quarterly, and Playboy. Hempel has participated in The Juniper Summer Writing Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers.

Generally termed a minimalist writer, along with Raymond Carver and Mary Robison, Hempel is one of a handful of writers who has built a reputation based solely on short fiction. Chuck Palahniuk wrote of her work:

“ Every sentence isn't just crafted, it's tortured over. Every quote and joke, what Hempel tosses out comedian-style, is something funny or profound enough you'll remember it for years. The same way, I sense, Hempel has remembered it, held on to it, saved it for a place where it could really shine. Scary jewelry metaphor, but her stories are studded and set with these compelling bits. Chocolate chip cookies with no bland "cookie" matrix, just nothing but chips and chopped walnuts.[2] ”

She lives in New York and, in addition to her duties at Sarah Lawrence, teaches fiction at The New School,[3] in the Low-Residency MFA Program in Writing at Bennington College,[4] and in the creative writing program at Princeton University.[5]

[edit] Bibliography

  • Reasons to Live (1985)
  • At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom (1990)
  • Tumble Home (1997)
  • The Dog of the Marriage (2005)
  • The Collected Stories (2006)

[edit] References

  1. ^ " Forty-Eight Ways of Looking at Amy Hempel" by Dave Weich. Powells.com (April 27, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-10-15.
  2. ^ "She Breaks Your Heart: Chuck Palahniuk on Amy Hempel". LA Weekly (September 18, 2002). Retrieved on 2007-10-15.
  3. ^ Amy Hempel. Sarah Lawrence College: Undergraduate Faculty (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-29.
  4. ^ Core Faculty: Amy Hempel, Fiction. Low-Residency MFA in Writing: The Bennington Writing Seminars (Undated). Retrieved on 2007-10-29.
  5. ^ 2007-08 Faculty. The Program in Creative Writing at Princeton University (Undated). Retrieved on 2007-10-29.

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Hempel, Amy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Short story writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 14, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago, Illinois, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Languages