Jami Attenberg


Jami Attenberg is an American fiction writer and essayist. She is the author of a short story collection and five novels, including best-seller The Middlesteins.

Early life

Attenberg grew up in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, and graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in Writing.

Career

Attenberg worked at HBO before deciding to devote herself to fiction writing, initially supported by temp jobs. Attenberg has also worked at WORD bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, a job she took after giving several readings at the store.

Fiction

In 2006, Attenberg published a collection of short stories with Random/Shaye Areheart under the title Instant Love. Two novels followed: The Kept Man and The Melting Season.
Following a change in publisher and accompanying marketing strategy, Attenberg experienced a literary breakthrough in 2012 with her third novel The Middlesteins, which became a New York Times bestseller and was listed among the ten best-selling books on Amazon in 2012. The Middlesteins was translated into multiple languages and Attenberg was nominated for multiple literature awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the St. Francis College Literary Prize.
In 2015, Attenberg published her fifth book, Saint Mazie. Buzzfeed listed Saint Mazie as one of the 27 "Most Exciting Books of 2015."
Attenberg's next novel, All Grown Up, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the US in March 2017, and in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Holland in 2017–2018.
In October 2019, she published All This Could Be Yours.

Essays

Attenberg's essays have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Elle and Lenny Letter.

Personal life

Attenberg lives in New Orleans, LA.