Binnie Kirshenbaum is an American novelist and short story writer. She is professor and chair of the Writing Program at Columbia University School of the Arts.
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Kirshenbaum received a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.F.A. from Brooklyn College. Before joining the faculty at Columbia, she taught at Wagner College in Staten Island.
Kirshenbaum is the author of two collections of short stories and six novels. She published her first book, Married Life and Other True Adventures, in 1990. Her work is noted for its wit and acute observations. Carlin Romano of The Philadelphia Inquirer called her “the younger sister of Philip Roth, the lost doppelganger of Erica Jong.”[1] Richard Howard wrote of her, “This author is indeed a humorist, even a comedian, a sort of stand-up tragic." [2] In its review of A Disturbance In One Place, the San Francisco Chronicle said, "Kirshenbaum refuses to corral what is funny or sad into separate camps, but allows one to flip over into the other, creating unexpectedly poignant effects."
Kirshenbaum's most recent novel, The Scenic Route, was published in 2009. It is the story of a divorced and recently unemployed woman who travels to Europe and has an affair with a married man. It has been described as “a refreshingly gimlet-eyed examination of memory”[3] and “a cross-cutting investigation into the horrors of the 20th century.” [4]
Kirshenbaum’s novels have been chosen as Notable Books of the Year by The Chicago Tribune, NPR, Time, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Washington Post. She twice won Critics Choice Awards, and she was selected by Granta as one of the Best Young American novelists. She’s published short fiction and essays in many magazines and anthologies and her work has been widely translated.[5]