Amy Beth Bloom (born 1953) is an American writer and

psychotherapist Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome prob ...

. She is professor of creative writing at Wesleyan University, and has been nominated for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Na ...

and the

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ar ...

, from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the ...

, and a

M.S.W. The Master of Social Work (MSW) is a master's degree in the field of social work. It is a professional degree with specializations compared to Bachelor of Social Work (BSW). MSW promotes macro-, mezzo- and micro-aspects of professional social work ...

(Master of Social Work) from

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

. Trained as a social worker, Bloom has practiced psychotherapy. Currently, Bloom is the Kim-Frank Family University Writer in Residence at

(effective July 1, 2010). Previously, she was a senior lecturer of creative writing in the department of English at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

, where she taught Advanced Fiction Writing, Writing for Television, and Writing for Children. Bloom has written articles in periodicals including ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of '' The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors ...

'', the ''Atlantic Monthly'', '' Vogue'', ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliation (geology), foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcano, volcanic ash (volcanic), ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is t ...

'', and '' Salon.com''. Her short fiction has appeared in The

Best American Short Stories The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of ''The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in con ...

, The O. Henry Prize Stories and several other anthologies, and has won a

National Magazine Award The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...

. In 1993, Bloom was nominated for the

National Book Award for Fiction The National Book Award for Fiction is one of five annual National Book Awards, which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens. Since 1987 the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation, but ...

for ''Come to Me: Stories'' and in 2000 was a finalist for the

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Lifetime Television Lifetime is an American basic cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, a subsidiary of A&E Networks, which is jointly owned by Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company. It features programming that is geared toward ...

network TV show, '' State of Mind'', which looked at the professional lives of psychotherapists. Bloom is listed as creator, co-executive producer, and head writer for the series. In August 2012, Bloom published her first children's book, entitled ''Little Sweet Potato'' (HarperCollins). According to the ''New York Times'', the story "follows the trials of a 'lumpy, dumpy, bumpy' young tuber who is accidentally expelled from his garden patch and must find a new home. On his journey, he is castigated first by a bunch of xenophobic carrots, then by a menacing gang of vain eggplants."

Personal life

Bloom currently resides in Connecticut. Though sometimes referred to as a cousin of literary critic

Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking worl ...

, she says their "cousinhood is entirely artificial and volitional". She has been married to two men, with a relationship with a woman in between. She has three children with her first husband, James Donald Moon. Her sister, Ellen Bloom, is married to physicist

Michael Lubell Michael S. Lubell is an American physicist. He is the Mark W. Zemansky Professor of Physics at the City College of New York. Biography Lubell received his B.A. from Columbia University and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Yale University. He taught at ...

. Her father was the freelance writer Murray Teigh Bloom, a founder and former president of the

American Society of Journalists and Authors The American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) was founded in 1948 as the Society of Magazine Writers, and is the professional association of independent nonfiction writers in the United States. History The organization was established in ...

Works

Fiction

Novels

* ''Love Invents Us'' (1997) * ''Away'' (2007) * ''Lucky Us'' (2014) * ''White Houses'' (2018)

Short stories

* ''Come to Me: Stories'' (1993) * ''A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You: Stories'' (2000) * ''The Story'' (2006) * ''Where the God of Love Hangs Out'' (2009) * ''Rowing to Eden'' (2015)

Non-fiction

* ''Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Cross-dressing Cops, and Hermaphrodites with Attitude'' (2002) * ''In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss'' (2022)

Screenplays, teleplays and television shows

* '' State of Mind'' (2007) * '' Wish Dragon'' (2021)

References

External links

Amy Bloom's Official SiteAn Interview with Amy Bloom at Rollins College (March 2015)Interview with Richard Wolinsky
on

KPFA KPFA (94.1 FM) is an American listener-funded talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station s ...

-FM (August 21, 2008)
Interview with Richard Wolinsky
on

-FM (September 4, 2014)
"A Portion of Your Loveliness"
a short story, Narrative Magazine (Winter 2007). {{DEFAULTSORT:Bloom, Amy American women psychologists American psychologists 20th-century American novelists American women novelists Bisexual women Bisexual writers American women short story writers 21st-century American novelists American LGBT novelists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers Wesleyan University alumni Smith College alumni Place of birth missing (living people) 1953 births Living people 21st-century LGBT people