Sam Lipsyte
Encyclopedia
Sam Lipsyte is an American novel
ist and short story
writer.
The son of the sports journalist Robert Lipsyte
, Sam Lipsyte was born in New York City
and raised in Closter, New Jersey
. He lives in Manhattan, and teaches fiction at Columbia University
.
Lipsyte was an editor at the webzine FEED. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Quarterly, The New Yorker, Harper's, Noon, Tin House, Open City, N+1, Slate, McSweeney's, Esquire, GQ, Bookforum, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post
, The Los Angeles Times, Nouvelle Revue Française
, The Paris Review, This Land, and Playboy, among other places. Lipsyte's work is characterized by its verbal acumen and black humor. His books have been translated into several languages, including French, Russian, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. His novel The Ask was published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
in 2010, and in the United Kingdom by Old Street Publishing. In May 2011, HBO announced development of a comedy, "People City," based on Lipsyte's work, with Lipsyte serving as writer and executive producer.
. Venus Drive was named one of the 25 Best Books of 2000 by The Village Voice Literary Supplement. In 2008 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship
.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
ist and short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
writer.
The son of the sports journalist Robert Lipsyte
Robert Lipsyte
Robert Lipsyte is an American sports journalist and author. Lipsyte is a member of the Board of Contributors for USA Todays Forum Page, part of the newspaper’s Opinion section.-Personal background:...
, Sam Lipsyte was born 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...
and raised in Closter, New Jersey
Closter, New Jersey
Closter is a Borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 8,373. After the turn of the century, Closter changed from being sprawling estates and farms into a middle and upper middle class suburban town...
. He lives in Manhattan, and teaches fiction at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
Lipsyte was an editor at the webzine FEED. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Quarterly, The New Yorker, Harper's, Noon, Tin House, Open City, N+1, Slate, McSweeney's, Esquire, GQ, Bookforum, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, The Los Angeles Times, Nouvelle Revue Française
Nouvelle Revue Française
La Nouvelle Revue Française is a literary magazine founded in 1909 by a group of intellectuals, including André Gide, Jacques Copeau, and Jean Schlumberger...
, The Paris Review, This Land, and Playboy, among other places. Lipsyte's work is characterized by its verbal acumen and black humor. His books have been translated into several languages, including French, Russian, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. His novel The Ask was published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Farrar, Straus and Giroux is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger W. Straus, Jr. and John C. Farrar. Known primarily as Farrar, Straus in its first decade of existence, the company was renamed several times, including Farrar, Straus and Young and Farrar, Straus and Cudahy...
in 2010, and in the United Kingdom by Old Street Publishing. In May 2011, HBO announced development of a comedy, "People City," based on Lipsyte's work, with Lipsyte serving as writer and executive producer.
Awards
His novel Home Land was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year for 2005 and won of the inaugural 2004 Believer Book AwardBeliever Book Award
Believer Book Award is an American literary award presented yearly by The Believer magazine to novels and story collections the magazine's editors thought were the "strongest and most under-appreciated" of the year. A shortlist and longlist are announced, along with reader's favorites, then a final...
. Venus Drive was named one of the 25 Best Books of 2000 by The Village Voice Literary Supplement. In 2008 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
.
Anthologies
- "Dear Miss Primatologist Lady", Four Letter Word: Invented Correspondence from the Edge of Modern Romance, Editors Rosalind Porter, Joshua Knelman, Simon and Schuster, 2008, ISBN 9781416569732
- "April Fool's Day", The revolution will be accessorized: BlackBook presents dispatches from the new counterculture, Editor Aaron Hicklin, HarperCollins, 2006, ISBN 9780060847326
Reviews
The test for the obsessive prose stylist who lacks an instinctive gift for storytelling is always the same: what's the minimum amount of plot you can get away with and still function within the parameters of a novel? Basically, the more style you have, the less plot you need. So if it takes little time to sketch the plot of Sam Lipsyte's The Ask, that's a backhanded way of saying it's a stylistic tour de force.
On the strength of three previous novels, Lipsyte has fashioned himself as America's bard of highly educated disgruntlement. Like Joseph Heller in "Catch-22," this puppeteer of delusional creatures communicates despair through rapid-fire dialogue, several varieties of non sequitur and cleverly coiled punch lines. "Home Land" is unforgettably structured as a profane collection of rants delivered to the protagonist's high school alumni newsletter. "The Ask" is a far more ambitious social comedy, couched in an economic anxiety that threatens grand-scale emasculation.
Sam Lipsyte’s third novel, “The Ask,” is a dark and jaded beast — the sort of book that, if it were an animal, would be a lumbering, hairy, cryptozoological ape-man with a near-crippling case of elephantiasis.
External links
- "The Dungeon Master" short fiction in The New Yorker
- "Underground No More: The Rumpus Interview with Sam Lipsyte"
- Sam Lipsyte interviewed at Gigantic magazine
- "Face to Face with SAM LIPSYTE", Stop Smiling, Alex Abramovich, February 01, 2007
- "This 'Home Land' is Your Land: The Sam Lipsyte IMterview", Gawker
- "Tip #37: Get a Head of Steam for your Self-Esteem", This Land
- "Get a Head of Steam for Your Self-Esteem" Video Adaptation, This Land
- a profile of Sam Lipsyte by Philip Connors in InDigest Magazine