Keith Gessen
Encyclopedia
Keith Gessen is a co-editor of n+1
, a thrice-yearly magazine of literature, politics, and culture based in New York City
.
, Russia, he and his parents and sister moved to the United States in 1981. They settled in the Boston area, living in Brighton, Brookline
and Newton, Massachusetts
.
Gessen's mother was a literary critic and his father is a computer scientist now specializing in forensics. His sister is Masha Gessen
. His maternal grandmother, Ruzya Solodovnik, was a Soviet government censor of dispatches filed by foreign reporters such as Harrison Salisbury
; his paternal grandmother, Ester Goldberg Gessen, was a translator for a foreign literary magazine.
Gessen graduated from Harvard College
, where his major was History and Literature. Gessen completed the course work for his Master of Fine Arts
in creative writing
from Syracuse University
in 2004 but did not receive a degree, having failed to submit "a final original work of fiction".
Gessen is divorced and as of 2008 resides in Clinton Hill
, Brooklyn
.
, The London Review of Books, The Atlantic, and the New York Review of Books. In 2004-2005, he was the regular book critic for New York magazine. In 2005, Dalkey Archive Press
published Gessen's translation of Svetlana Alexievich
's Tchernobylskaia Molitva (Voices from Chernobyl), an oral history of the Chernobyl
nuclear disaster. In 2009, Penguin published his translation (with Anna Summers) of Ludmilla Petrushevskaya's There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales.
Gessen's first novel, All the Sad Young Literary Men
, was published in April 2008 and received mixed reviews. Joyce Carol Oates
wrote that "in this debut novel there is much that is charming and beguiling, and much promise", and Jonathan Franzen
has said of Gessen, "it's so delicious the way he writes. I like it a lot." New York Magazine, on the other hand, called it "self-satisfied" and "boringly solipsistic".
In 2010, Gessen edited and introduced Diary of a Very Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager, a book about the financial crisis.
In 2011, Gessen was arrested by the New York City police while covering and participating in the Occupy Wall Street
protests.
N+1
n+1 is a New York–based American literary magazine that publishes social criticism, political commentary, essays, art, poetry, book reviews, and short fiction. It is published three times each year, and content is published on several times each week...
, a thrice-yearly magazine of literature, politics, and culture based in 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...
.
Biography
Born Konstantin Gessen in MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Russia, he and his parents and sister moved to the United States in 1981. They settled in the Boston area, living in Brighton, Brookline
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...
and Newton, Massachusetts
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...
.
Gessen's mother was a literary critic and his father is a computer scientist now specializing in forensics. His sister is Masha Gessen
Masha Gessen
Masha Gessen is an American journalist and author.Born into an Ashkenazi Jewish family in Russia, in 1981 she moved with her family to the United States, returning in 1991 to Moscow where she lives now. Her brother is Keith Gessen....
. His maternal grandmother, Ruzya Solodovnik, was a Soviet government censor of dispatches filed by foreign reporters such as Harrison Salisbury
Harrison Salisbury
Harrison Evans Salisbury , an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist , was the first regular New York Times correspondent in Moscow after World War II. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota...
; his paternal grandmother, Ester Goldberg Gessen, was a translator for a foreign literary magazine.
Gessen graduated from Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
, where his major was History and Literature. Gessen completed the course work for his Master of Fine Arts
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
in creative writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
from Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
in 2004 but did not receive a degree, having failed to submit "a final original work of fiction".
Gessen is divorced and as of 2008 resides in Clinton Hill
Clinton Hill
-Places in the United States:*Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, New York, a neighborhood*Clinton Hill, Newark, New Jersey, a neighborhood-People:*Clinton Hill , New York School artist...
, Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
.
Career
Gessen has written about Russia for The New YorkerThe New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, The London Review of Books, The Atlantic, and the New York Review of Books. In 2004-2005, he was the regular book critic for New York magazine. In 2005, Dalkey Archive Press
Dalkey Archive Press
Dalkey Archive Press is a publisher of fiction, poetry, and literary criticism in Illinois in the United States, specializing in the publication or republication of lesser known, often avant-garde works...
published Gessen's translation of Svetlana Alexievich
Svetlana Alexievich
Svetlana Alexievich is a Belarusian investigative journalist and prose writer.-Life:Born in the Ukrainian town of Stanislav to a Belarusian father and a Ukrainian mother, she grew up in Belarus...
's Tchernobylskaia Molitva (Voices from Chernobyl), an oral history of the Chernobyl
Chernobyl
Chernobyl or Chornobyl is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, in Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus. The city had been the administrative centre of the Chernobyl Raion since 1932....
nuclear disaster. In 2009, Penguin published his translation (with Anna Summers) of Ludmilla Petrushevskaya's There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales.
Gessen's first novel, All the Sad Young Literary Men
All the Sad Young Literary Men
All the Sad Young Literary Men is the debut novel of Keith Gessen, the founder of the journal n+1. It was published by Viking in April, 2008.-Plot:...
, was published in April 2008 and received mixed reviews. Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...
wrote that "in this debut novel there is much that is charming and beguiling, and much promise", and Jonathan Franzen
Jonathan Franzen
Jonathan Franzen is an American novelist and essayist. His third novel, The Corrections , a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction...
has said of Gessen, "it's so delicious the way he writes. I like it a lot." New York Magazine, on the other hand, called it "self-satisfied" and "boringly solipsistic".
In 2010, Gessen edited and introduced Diary of a Very Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager, a book about the financial crisis.
In 2011, Gessen was arrested by the New York City police while covering and participating in the Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters which began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district...
protests.
External links
- New York Inquirer 2006 interview with Gessen about n+1
- Young Manhattanite 2008 interview with Gessen
- New York Times profile of Gessen, 27 April 2008
- "Here’s Why the Cookie Crumbled" Dwight Garner, The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, 13 July 2010