Jonathan Dee (born May 19, 1962) is an American novelist and non-fiction writer. His fifth novel, ''The Privileges'', was a finalist for the 2011

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...

Early life

Dee was born in New York City. He graduated from

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 wo ...

, where he studied fiction writing with

John Hersey John Richard Hersey (June 17, 1914 – March 24, 1993) was an American writer and journalist. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to n ...

Career

Dee's first job out of college was at ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

'', as an Associate Editor and personal assistant to

George Plimpton George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American writer. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found ''The Paris Review'', as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was also known for " ...

. Early in his tenure with Plimpton, Dee helped pull off the popular April Fool's joke about

Sidd Finch Sidd Finch is a fictional baseball player, the subject of the notorious April Fools' Day hoax article "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch" written by George Plimpton and first published in the April 1, 1985, issue of ''Sports Illustrated''. According ...

, a fictitious baseball pitcher Plimpton wrote about for ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

''. Dee has published eight novels, including ''The Lover of History'', ''The Liberty Campaign'', ''St. Famous'', ''Palladio'', ''The Privileges'', ''A Thousand Pardons'', ''The Locals'', and ''Sugar Street''. He is a staff writer for ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...

'', and contributor to '' Harper's''. He taught in the graduate writing programs at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

, and is currently a professor in the graduate writing program at Syracuse University. Dee collaborated on the oral biography of Plimpton, "George, Being George", published by Random House in 2008. He interviewed Hersey and co-interviewed

Grace Paley Grace Paley (December 11, 1922 – August 22, 2007) was an American short story author, poet, teacher, and political activist. Paley wrote three critically acclaimed collections of short stories, which were compiled in the Pulitzer Prize and Na ...

for ''

''s The Art of Fiction series.

Awards and fellowships

Dee was nominated for a National Magazine Award in 2010 for criticism in Harper's. He has received fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. His 2010 novel, ''The Privileges'', won the 2011 Prix Fitzgerald prize and was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He was the second winner of the

St. Francis College Literary Prize The St. Francis College Literary Prize is a biennial literary award inaugurated in 2009. The prize of is presented to a mid-career author in honor of a third to fifth book of fiction. The winner is selected by a jury and invited to St. Francis Col ...

Personal life

Dee lives in the historic John G. Ayling House in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

, with his partner, the writer

Dana Spiotta Dana Spiotta (born 1966) is an American author. She was a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. Her novel ''Stone Arabia'' (2011) was a National Book Critics Circle ...

Bibliography

* ''The Lover of History'' (1990) (Houghton Mifflin) * ''The Liberty Campaign'' (1993) (Pocket Books) * ''St. Famous'' (1996) (Doubleday) * ''Palladio'' (2002) (Doubleday) * ''The Privileges'' (2010) (Random House) * ''A Thousand Pardons'' (2013) (Random House) * ''The Locals'' (2017) (Random House) * ''Sugar Street'' (2022) (Grove Press)

References

External links

Ready-made rebellion: The empty tropes of transgressive fictionJonathan Dee on the place of the novel in a money-driven society
Clé des langues, 2012
"Watch Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself"

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

. May 16, 2014]. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dee, Jonathan 1962 births Living people 20th-century American novelists St. Francis College Literary Prize Yale University alumni Columbia University staff 21st-century American novelists American male novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers Syracuse University faculty