Jerome Charyn
| Jerome Charyn | |
|---|---|
Jerome Charyn
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| Born |
13 May 1937 Bronx, New York |
| Occupation | Novelist, playwright, editor, film critic, professor and author of short stories, essays and non-fiction works |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1963-present |
| Notable awards | 2005 PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist 2002 Commander of Arts and Letters (Commandeur, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) France 1981 Rosenthal Award in Fiction - American Academy of Arts and Letters |
Jerome Charyn (born May 13, 1937) is an American author. 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. Michael Chabon calls him “one of the most important writers in American literature.”
New York Newsday hailed Charyn as “a contemporary American Balzac,” and the Los Angeles Times described him as “absolutely unique among American writers.”
Charyn’s first novel, Once Upon a Droshky was published in 1964. Only with Blue Eyes (1975), the debut of detective character Isaac Sidel, did Charyn vault to wide attention and acclaim. 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. 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. Noted novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn’s book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong."
Charyn lives in Paris and New York City.
Charyn was born in the Bronx to Sam and Fanny (Paley) Charyn. In order to escape its mean streets, Charyn immersed himself in comic books and cinema. Books were scarce in the Charyn household, save for volume “A” of the Book of Knowledge. After becoming all too well versed in astronomy and aardvarks, Charyn hungered for more. He attended The High School of Music and Art in Manhattan, majoring in painting. Turning from painting to literature, Charyn enrolled at Columbia University, where he studied history and comparative literature with a focus on Russian literature, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude (BA, 1959).
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