Jason Starr
Encyclopedia
Jason Starr is an American author
and screenplay writer
from New York City
. Starr has written numerous crime fiction
novels and thrillers.
Starr's Tough Luck, a novel published in 2003, was a Barry Award Winner for Best Paperback Original and was a nominee at the Anthony Award
s in 2004 for Best Paperback Original. Twisted City won an Anthony for Best Paperback Original in 2005. in 2011, The Chill won the first ever Anthony Award for Best Graphic Novel.
Starr is part of a literary circle that includes Ken Bruen
, Daniel Woodrell
, Wallace Stroby, Alan Glynn
, George Pelecanos
, Lee Child
, Bret Easton Ellis
, Megan Abbott
, Alison Gaylin, and Allan Guthrie
.
. Starr is known for his satirical urban crime novels, set mainly in the New York City area. When asked why (until The Pack) he wrote standalone novels and didn't rely on a series character he said, "New York City is my series character."
In the 1990s, Starr had several plays produced at Off-Off Broadway theater companies in New York. In 1997, Starr's first crime novel, Cold Caller, was selected as a Publisher's Weekly First Fiction pick and was hailed by Kirkus Reviews as "just the thing for fans who miss the acid noir that Jim Thompson dispensed in The Grifters." Upon its publication in 1998, the French edition of Cold Caller was selected as the official gift of the prestigious 813 book group. In the critical work Twentieth Century Crime Fiction, (Oxford University Press, 2005), author Lee Horsley selected Cold Caller as one of the basic texts for discussion.
Starr's second novel, Nothing Personal, about a compulsive gambler who hatches a sick kidnapping plot to pay off debts, was hailed as the best novel of the year by Bookends. Starr's third novel, Fake I.D., concerns a bouncer's desperate attempts to join a horse-owning syndicate. His fourth novel, Hard Feelings, about a computer networking salesman, trying to do deal with a horror from his past, was a "Penzler Pick" and the first ever original novel published by the prestigious American publisher, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard.
Tough Luck, Starr's fifth novel, about a young guy in Brooklyn who gets in deep with a mob figure, was an Anthony Award finalist and won the Barry Award for best paperback. Starr's sixth novel, Twisted City, about the devastating consequences a financial journalist faces when he attempts to recover a stolen wallet, was a Barry Award finalist and an Anthony Award winner. In 2006, Starr's novel Lights Out, a tale of jealousy and murder set in Brooklyn, was first published by St. Martin's Press in the U.S. and Orion in the U.K. It was hailed as one of the best crime novels of the year by Barnes and Noble.com and Bookreporter.com. Also in 2006, the heralded American pulp publisher Hard Case Crime
, published Bust, a crime novel that Starr wrote with Irish novelist Ken Bruen
(BUST was an IMBA bestseller). That same year, Vintage Books published a collection of stories and essays on horse racing called Bloodlines: A Horse Racing Anthology, which Starr co-edited with Maggie Estep.
In 2007, Starr's thriller The Follower, called "this generation's Looking for Mr. Goodbar
" by the New York Post
, was first published by St. Martin's Press and Orion Books. Also in 2007, Hard Case Crime published Slide, a second novel co-authored by Starr and Ken Bruen. In 2008, Starr and Bruen's third novel, The Max was published in what became known as "The Bust Trilogy."
Panic Attack, Starr's thriller about the aftermath of a shooting in suburban New York City, was published in 2009 by St. Martin's Press. The German/ Diogenes Verlag edition (Panik) was a major bestseller in Austria.
In 2010, Starr's first graphic novel, The Chill, was published by Vertigo Crime, with art by Mick Bertilorenzi. Starr also wrote many comics for DC Comics (Justice, Inc.
). In 2011, The Chill won the Anthony Award for Best Graphic Novel, making Starr one of only ten writers who have won multiple Anthony Awards.
In 2011, Penguin/Ace published Starr's The Pack, the first book in a new modern day werewolf series set mainly in the New York City area. The second book in the series, The Craving, will be published by Penguin in June, 2012.
Starr has also become a prolific writers of comics and graphic novels, writing original works such as The Chill, as well as working on iconic characters such as Batman, Doc Savage, The Avenger, The Sandman, and The Punisher for Vertigo, D.C. and Marvel.
Starr's work has been published in nine languages, including in Germany by Diogenes Verlag. Top Job (the German edition of Cold Caller) was adapted as an hour-long radio drama by Deutschland Radio, and was recently chosen as one of the top 50 novels of the past 60 years by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. As a result, in 2006 a new hardcover edition of Top Job was published as part of a popular series of crime novels (SZ Krimibibliothek) by Süddeutsche Zeitung.
American literature
American literature is the written or literary work produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States. During its early history, America was a series of British...
and screenplay writer
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Starr has written numerous crime fiction
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
novels and thrillers.
Starr's Tough Luck, a novel published in 2003, was a Barry Award Winner for Best Paperback Original and was a nominee at the Anthony Award
Anthony Award
The Anthony Awards are literary awards for mystery writers presented at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention since 1986. The awards are named for Anthony Boucher , one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America....
s in 2004 for Best Paperback Original. Twisted City won an Anthony for Best Paperback Original in 2005. in 2011, The Chill won the first ever Anthony Award for Best Graphic Novel.
Starr is part of a literary circle that includes Ken Bruen
Ken Bruen
Ken Bruen is an Irish writer of hard-boiled and noir crime fiction.He was born in Galway, and educated at Gormanston College, County Meath and later at Trinity College Dublin, where he earned a Ph.D. in metaphysics. He spent twenty-five years as an English teacher in Africa, Japan, S.E. Asia and...
, Daniel Woodrell
Daniel Woodrell
Daniel Woodrell is an American writer of fiction. He has written eight novels, most of them set in the Missouri Ozarks. Woodrell coined the phrase "country noir" to describe his 1996 novel Give Us a Kiss...
, Wallace Stroby, Alan Glynn
Alan Glynn
Alan Glynn is an Irish writer born in 1960 in Dublin.Glynn was born in 1960 in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, and studied English literature at Trinity College Dublin. He has written four novels: The Dark Fields , 2001; Winterland, 2009; Bloodland, 2011; and Stoff , 2006...
, George Pelecanos
George Pelecanos
George P. Pelecanos is a Greek-American author. Many of his works are in the genre of detective fiction and set primarily in his hometown of Washington, D.C. He is also a film and television producer and a television writer...
, Lee Child
Lee Child
Jim Grant , better known by his pen name Lee Child, is a British thriller writer. His wife Jane is a New Yorker, and they currently live in New York state. His first novel, Killing Floor, won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel....
, Bret Easton Ellis
Bret Easton Ellis
Bret Easton Ellis is an American novelist and short story writer. His works have been translated into 27 different languages. He was regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack, which also included Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney...
, Megan Abbott
Megan Abbott
Megan Abbott is an American author of crime fiction and of a non-fiction analysis of hardboiled crime fiction and a graduate of the University of Michigan. Her novels and short stories have drawn from and re-worked classic subgenres of crime writing, with a female twist. She has stated that she...
, Alison Gaylin, and Allan Guthrie
Allan Guthrie
Allan Guthrie is a Scottish literary agent, and an author and editor of crime fiction. He was born in Orkney, but has lived in Edinburgh for most of his adult life. His first novel, Two-Way Split, was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger Award, and it won the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel...
.
Biography
Jason Starr was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up, he enjoyed sports such as baseball, tennis, and horse racing, but didn't have much interest in literature. He began writing plays and fiction in college at Binghamton UniversityBinghamton University
Binghamton University, also formally called State University of New York at Binghamton, , is a public research university in the State of New York. The University is one of the four university centers in the State University of New York system...
. Starr is known for his satirical urban crime novels, set mainly in the New York City area. When asked why (until The Pack) he wrote standalone novels and didn't rely on a series character he said, "New York City is my series character."
In the 1990s, Starr had several plays produced at Off-Off Broadway theater companies in New York. In 1997, Starr's first crime novel, Cold Caller, was selected as a Publisher's Weekly First Fiction pick and was hailed by Kirkus Reviews as "just the thing for fans who miss the acid noir that Jim Thompson dispensed in The Grifters." Upon its publication in 1998, the French edition of Cold Caller was selected as the official gift of the prestigious 813 book group. In the critical work Twentieth Century Crime Fiction, (Oxford University Press, 2005), author Lee Horsley selected Cold Caller as one of the basic texts for discussion.
Starr's second novel, Nothing Personal, about a compulsive gambler who hatches a sick kidnapping plot to pay off debts, was hailed as the best novel of the year by Bookends. Starr's third novel, Fake I.D., concerns a bouncer's desperate attempts to join a horse-owning syndicate. His fourth novel, Hard Feelings, about a computer networking salesman, trying to do deal with a horror from his past, was a "Penzler Pick" and the first ever original novel published by the prestigious American publisher, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard.
Tough Luck, Starr's fifth novel, about a young guy in Brooklyn who gets in deep with a mob figure, was an Anthony Award finalist and won the Barry Award for best paperback. Starr's sixth novel, Twisted City, about the devastating consequences a financial journalist faces when he attempts to recover a stolen wallet, was a Barry Award finalist and an Anthony Award winner. In 2006, Starr's novel Lights Out, a tale of jealousy and murder set in Brooklyn, was first published by St. Martin's Press in the U.S. and Orion in the U.K. It was hailed as one of the best crime novels of the year by Barnes and Noble.com and Bookreporter.com. Also in 2006, the heralded American pulp publisher Hard Case Crime
Hard Case Crime
Hard Case Crime is an American imprint of hardboiled crime novels founded in 2004 by Charles Ardai, also known as the founder of the Internet service Juno Online Services, and Max Phillips....
, published Bust, a crime novel that Starr wrote with Irish novelist Ken Bruen
Ken Bruen
Ken Bruen is an Irish writer of hard-boiled and noir crime fiction.He was born in Galway, and educated at Gormanston College, County Meath and later at Trinity College Dublin, where he earned a Ph.D. in metaphysics. He spent twenty-five years as an English teacher in Africa, Japan, S.E. Asia and...
(BUST was an IMBA bestseller). That same year, Vintage Books published a collection of stories and essays on horse racing called Bloodlines: A Horse Racing Anthology, which Starr co-edited with Maggie Estep.
In 2007, Starr's thriller The Follower, called "this generation's Looking for Mr. Goodbar
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
Looking for Mr. Goodbar is a 1975 novel by Judith Rossner. Rossner based the novel on the events surrounding the brutal murder of Roseann Quinn, a 28-year-old New York City schoolteacher in 1973.-References:...
" by the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, was first published by St. Martin's Press and Orion Books. Also in 2007, Hard Case Crime published Slide, a second novel co-authored by Starr and Ken Bruen. In 2008, Starr and Bruen's third novel, The Max was published in what became known as "The Bust Trilogy."
Panic Attack, Starr's thriller about the aftermath of a shooting in suburban New York City, was published in 2009 by St. Martin's Press. The German/ Diogenes Verlag edition (Panik) was a major bestseller in Austria.
In 2010, Starr's first graphic novel, The Chill, was published by Vertigo Crime, with art by Mick Bertilorenzi. Starr also wrote many comics for DC Comics (Justice, Inc.
Justice, Inc.
"Justice, Inc." is the first pulp magazine story to feature The Avenger. Written by Paul Ernst, it was published in the September 1, 1939 issue of "The Avenger” magazine.-Publishing history:...
). In 2011, The Chill won the Anthony Award for Best Graphic Novel, making Starr one of only ten writers who have won multiple Anthony Awards.
In 2011, Penguin/Ace published Starr's The Pack, the first book in a new modern day werewolf series set mainly in the New York City area. The second book in the series, The Craving, will be published by Penguin in June, 2012.
Starr has also become a prolific writers of comics and graphic novels, writing original works such as The Chill, as well as working on iconic characters such as Batman, Doc Savage, The Avenger, The Sandman, and The Punisher for Vertigo, D.C. and Marvel.
Starr's work has been published in nine languages, including in Germany by Diogenes Verlag. Top Job (the German edition of Cold Caller) was adapted as an hour-long radio drama by Deutschland Radio, and was recently chosen as one of the top 50 novels of the past 60 years by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. As a result, in 2006 a new hardcover edition of Top Job was published as part of a popular series of crime novels (SZ Krimibibliothek) by Süddeutsche Zeitung.