Myla Goldberg
Encyclopedia
Biography
Goldberg was born into a Jewish family. She was raised in Laurel, MarylandLaurel, Maryland
Laurel is a city in northern Prince George's County, Anne Arundel County, and Howard County, Maryland, United States, located midway between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. Incorporated in 1870, the city maintains a historic district including its Main Street...
, and graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt High School. She majored in English
English major
The English Major is a term in the United States and a few other countries for an undergraduate university degree focused around the consumption, analysis, and production of texts in the English language...
at Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, graduating in 1993. She spent a year teaching and writing in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
(providing the germ of her book of essays Time's Magpie, which explores her favorite places within the city), then moved to Brooklyn, New York, where she still lives with her husband (Jason Little
Jason Little (cartoonist)
Jason Palmer Little is an American cartoonist.He grew up in Binghamton, New York, studied photography at Oberlin College, and now lives in Brooklyn with writer Myla Goldberg and their two daughters....
) and two daughters.
Goldberg is an accomplished amateur musician. She plays the banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
and accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
in a Brooklyn-based indie rock quartet, The Walking Hellos. She has performed with The Galerkin Method and the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus
Bindlestiff Family Cirkus
The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus was founded in 1995 By Keith Nelson and Stephanie Monseu. Since then, they have toured the world with their mix of circus and sideshow...
. She collaborates with the New York art collective Flux Factory. She has contributed song lyrics to the musical group One Ring Zero
One Ring Zero
One Ring Zero is a modern music group led by Joshua Camp and Michael Hearst that melds many genres and sounds to create a unique type of music.-Instruments:...
.
Career
While in Prague, Goldberg completed her first novel, Kirkus, a story of an Eastern European circus troupe engulfed by the onset of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. She gave it to an agent who shopped it for 18 months, but it was not published by the time she had begun working on Bee Season, so it was shelved.
After returning to Brooklyn Goldberg took several jobs, including working on a production of a Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
horror movie. She was let go from that job, which brought an unforeseen benefit - the six months of unemployment benefits checks gave her sufficient time to finish Bee Season ("It was a grant, as far as I was concerned", she told an Oberlin student interviewer in 2005).
Goldberg's first published novel was Bee Season
Bee Season
Bee Season is a 2000 novel by Myla Goldberg. It follows a young girl as she attempts to win the national spelling bee, and the repercussions of her success on the other members of her family.-Plot summary:...
(2000
2000 in literature
The year 2000 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* February 13 - Final original Peanuts comic strip is published...
), portraying the breakdown of a family and the spiritual explorations of its two children amid a series of spelling bee
Spelling bee
A spelling bee is a competition where contestants, usually children, are asked to spell English words. The concept is thought to have originated in the United States....
s. It was a popular and critical success, and was adapted into a film
Bee Season (film)
Bee Season is a 2005 American drama film adaptation of the 2000 novel of the same name by Myla Goldberg. The film was directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel and written by Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal. It stars Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche.-Plot:...
in 2005
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
. She has also published short stories in Virgin Fiction, Eclectic Literary Forum, New American Writing
New American Writing
New American Writing is a once-a-year American literary magazine emphasizing contemporary American poetry, including a range of innovative contemporary writing. The magazine is published in association with San Francisco State University. New American Writing is published by OINK! Press, a...
, McSweeney's
Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern
Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern is a literary journal, first published in 1998, edited by Dave Eggers. The first issue featured only works rejected by other magazines, but thereafter the journal began to include pieces written with McSweeney's in mind. McSweeney’s has since published works by...
and Harpers Magazine
Harpers Magazine
Harpers Wine and Spirit Trade Review or simply Harpers is a British fortnightly publication for the wine and spirit industry. Founded in 1878, it has a circulation of 5,224 fully subscribed readers. It is read across all sectors of the drinks industry including producers, distributors,...
. She reviews books for The New York Times
The New York Times
The 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...
and Bookforum
Bookforum
Bookforum is a New York-based magazine devoted to books and the discussion of literature. It is edited by Albert Mobilio, Chris Lehmann, , and Michael Miller.-History: Bookforum was launched in 1994 as a literary supplement to Artforum...
.
In 2005 Goldberg published a second novel, Wickett's Remedy (2005
2005 in literature
The year 2005 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*February 25 - Canada Reads selects Rockbound by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation....
), which is set during the 1918 influenza epidemic
Spanish flu
The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus . It was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin...
. In 2009 she said she was working on a third novel, to be titled The False Friend, due in 2010. It describes a woman whose memory is jogged, causing her to revisit a tragic event in her youth. "It's about memory, hometowns and the adults children turn into," Goldberg told an interviewer.
"Song for Myla Goldberg" is track six on The Decemberists
The Decemberists
The Decemberists are an indie folk rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States, fronted by singer/songwriter Colin Meloy. The other members of the band are Chris Funk , Jenny Conlee , Nate Query , and John Moen .The band's...
' album Her Majesty The Decemberists. It makes a handful of allusions to Bee Season.