Jonathan Safran Foer (; born February 21, 1977) is an American novelist. He is known for his novels ''

Everything Is Illuminated ''Everything Is Illuminated'' is the first novel by the American writer Jonathan Safran Foer, published in 2002. It was adapted into a film of the same name starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hütz in 2005. The book's writing and structure recei ...

'' (2002), '' Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close'' (2005), ''

Here I Am Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Television * Here TV (formerly "here!"), a T ...

'' (2016), and for his non-fiction works ''

Eating Animals ''Eating Animals'' is the third book by the American novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, published in 2009. A ''New York Times'' best-seller, ''Eating Animals'' provides a dense discussion of what it means to eat animals in an industrialized world. It ...

'' (2009) and ''We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast'' (2019). He teaches creative writing at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Early life and education

Safran Foer was born in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

as the son of Albert Foer, a lawyer and president of the

American Antitrust Institute The American Antitrust Institute (AAI) is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit education, research, and advocacy organization. The AAI advocates for more aggressive antitrust enforcement by the federal government. History and funding Founded in ...

, and

Esther Safran Foer Esther Safran Foer (born 1946) is a writer and the former executive director of Sixth & I Synagogue in Washington, DC. Early life Esther Safran was born in Łódź, Poland to Louis and Ethel Safran, Holocaust survivors who met in 1945. She sp ...

, a child of

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

survivors born in Poland, who is now Senior Advisor at the

Sixth & I Historic Synagogue The Sixth & I Historic Synagogue is a non-denominational, non-membership, non-traditional Jewish synagogue located at the corner of Sixth Street and I Street, NW in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It is one of the oldest synagogue ...

. Safran Foer is the middle son of a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family. His older brother,

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...

, is a former editor of ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

'' and his younger brother,

Joshua Joshua () or Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' lit. 'Yahweh is salvation') ''Yēšūaʿ''; syr, ܝܫܘܥ ܒܪ ܢܘܢ ''Yəšūʿ bar Nōn''; el, Ἰησοῦς, ar , يُوشَعُ ٱبْنُ نُونٍ '' Yūšaʿ ...

, is the founder of '' Atlas Obscura'' and of

Sefaria Sefaria is an online open source, free content, digital library of Jewish texts. It was founded in 2011 by former Google project manager Brett Lockspeiser and journalist-author Joshua Foer. Calling itself "a living library of Jewish texts", Sefar ...

. Safran Foer was a "flamboyant" and sensitive child who, at the age of 8, was injured in a classroom chemical accident that resulted in "something like a nervous breakdown drawn out over about three years," during which "he wanted nothing, except to be outside his own skin." Safran Foer attended Georgetown Day School and in 1994 traveled to Israel with other North American Jewish teenagers in a program sponsored by Bronfman youth fellowships. In 1995, while a freshman at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, he took an introductory writing course with author

Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...

,Margo Nash
"Learning to Write From the Masters"
''The New York Times'', December 1, 2002. Retrieved October 29, 2008. who took an interest in his writing, telling him that he had "that most important of writerly qualities, energy."Robert Birnbaum
"Jonathan Safran Foer: Author of Everything is Illuminated talks with Robert Birnbaum"
''Identity Theory'', May 26, 2006. Retrieved October 29, 2008. Safran Foer later recalled that "she was the first person to ever make me think I should try to write in any sort of serious way. And my life really changed after that." Safran Foer graduated with an A.B. in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

from Princeton in 1999 after completing a 40-page-long senior thesis, titled "Before Reading The Book of Anticedents: Intention, Literary Interpretation, and the Hypothesized Author", under the supervision of

Gideon Rosen Gideon Rosen (born 1962) is an American philosopher. He is a Stuart Professor of Philosophy and the chair of the philosophy department at Princeton University, where he specializes in metaphysics, philosophy of mathematics, and ethics. Educat ...

. Oates served as the advisor to Safran Foer's creative writing senior thesis, an examination of the life of his maternal grandfather, the Holocaust survivor Louis Safran. For his thesis, Safran Foer received Princeton's Senior Creative Writing Thesis Prize. After graduating from Princeton, Safran Foer briefly attended the

Mount Sinai School of Medicine The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City. It is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which manages eigh ...

before dropping out to pursue his writing career.Anemona Hartocollis
"Getting Into Med School Without Hard Sciences"
''The New York Times'', July 29, 2010. Retrieved July 30, 2010.

Career

Safran Foer graduated from Princeton in 1999 with a degree in

Deborah Solomon Deborah Solomon (born August 9, 1957) is an American art critic, journalist and biographer. She sometimes writes for the New York Times, where she was previously a columnist. Her weekly column, "Questions For" ran in ''The New York Times Magazin ...

"The Rescue Artist"
''The New York Times'', February 27, 2005. Retrieved May 24, 2008. and traveled to

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

to expand his thesis. In 2001, he edited the anthology ''A Convergence of Birds: Original Fiction and Poetry Inspired by the Work of Joseph Cornell'', to which he contributed the short story, "If the Aging Magician Should Begin to Believe". His Princeton thesis grew into a novel, ''

'', which was published by

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

. The book earned him a National Jewish Book Award (2001) and a Guardian First Book Award (2002). Safran Foer shared the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize with fellow authors Will Heinrich and

Monique Truong Monique T.D. Truong (born May 13, 1968, in Saigon in South Vietnam) is a Vietnamese American writer living in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from Yale University and Columbia University School of Law. She has written multiple books, and her ...

in 2004. In 2005,

Liev Schreiber Isaac Liev Schreiber (; born October 4, 1967) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and narrator. He became known during the late 1990s and early 2000s after appearing in several independent films, and later mainstream Hollywoo ...

wrote and directed a

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

of the novel, which starred Elijah Wood. Safran Foer's second novel '' Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close'', was published in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

. In it, Safran Foer used

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

as a backdrop for the story of 9-year-old Oskar Schell, who learns how to deal with the death of his father in the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

. The novel used writing techniques known as visual writing. It follows multiple but interconnected storylines, is peppered with photographs of doorknobs and other such oddities, and ends with a 14-page flipbook. Safran Foer's use of these techniques resulted in both praise and excoriation from critics.

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

and

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

turned the novel into a

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

, produced by

Scott Rudin Scott Rudin (born July 14, 1958) is an American film, television, and theatre producer. His films include the Academy Award-winning Best Picture ''No Country for Old Men,'' as well as ''Uncut Gems'', '' Lady Bird, Fences, The Girl with the Dragon ...

and directed by Stephen Daldry. Safran Foer wrote the libretto for an opera titled ''Seven Attempted Escapes From Silence'', which premiered at the

Berlin State Opera The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from ...

on September 14, 2005. Jonathan Safran Foer Shankbone 2009

In 2008, Safran Foer taught writing for the first time as a visiting professor of

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

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 ...

. , he teaches in the graduate creative writing program at

. Safran Foer published his third novel, ''

Tree of Codes ''Tree of Codes'' is an artwork, in the form of a book, created by Jonathan Safran Foer, and published in 2010. To create the book, Foer took Bruno Schulz's book ''The Street of Crocodiles'' and cut out the majority of the words. The publisher, V ...

'', in November 2010. In March 2012, ''The New American Haggadah'', edited by Safran Foer and translated by Nathan Englander, was released to mixed reviews. In 2009, Safran Foer published his third book, ''

''. A ''New York Times'' bestseller, ''Eating Animals'' provides a morally dense discussion of some of the ramifications that followed the proliferation of factory farms. It attempts to explain why and how humans can be so loving to our companion animals while simultaneously being indifferent to others, and explores what this inconsistency tells us about ourselves―what kinds of stories emerge from this selectivity. The book offers a significant focus on "storytelling"―the title of both the first and the last chapters of the book. Storytelling is Safran Foer's way of recognizing and dealing with the complexity of the subject that is eating animals, and suggests that, ultimately, our food choices tell stories about who we are, or, as Safran Foer has it in his book, "stories about food are stories about us―our history and our values." In May 2012, Safran Foer signed a two-book deal with Little, Brown. His novel, ''Escape From Children's Hospital'', was due for publication in 2014, but is no longer on the publisher's schedule. In September 2016, he released the novel ''

''. In 2019, as part of the book tour for ''We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast'', Safran Foer took part in an on stage conversation with

Samin Nosrat Samin Nosrat ( fa, ثمین نصرت, , born November 7, 1979) is an American chef, TV host, food writer and podcaster. She is the author of the James Beard Award–winning, ''New York Times'' Bestselling cookbook '' Salt Fat Acid Heat'' and hos ...

about eating and climate change. Safran Foer serves as a board member for Farm Forward, a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

that implements innovative strategies to promote conscientious food choices, reduce farmed animal suffering, and advance sustainable agriculture.

Views

Safran Foer has been an outspoken critic of the meat industry. In 2006, he recorded the narration for the documentary ''If This is Kosher...'', an exposé of the

kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...

certification process that advocates Jewish vegetarianism. Safran Foer's first book of non-fiction, ''

'' (2009), addresses problems associated with industrialized meat and the ensuing ethical concerns.Amazon.com listing for ''Eating Animals''
Retrieved May 24, 2009. He said that he had long been "uncertain about how I felt

bout eating meat Bout can mean: People *Viktor Bout, suspected arms dealer * Jan Everts Bout, early settler to New Netherland * Marcel Bout Musical instruments * The outward-facing round parts of the body shape of violins, guitars, and other stringed instrum ...

and that the birth of his first child inspired "an urgency because I would have to make decisions on his behalf"."Interview with Jonathan Safran Foer"
The Young and Hungry, May 3, 2009. Retrieved May 24, 2009. In the wake of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Safran Foer reiterated his argument that Americans should eat less meat on account of the meat industry's social, environmental, and humanitarian consequences. In his personal life, Safran Foer has been an occasional

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

since the age of 10.

Personal life

In June 2004, Safran Foer married writer Nicole Krauss. They lived in Park Slope in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, and have two children. The couple divorced in 2014 when Jonathan unsuccessfully courted

Natalie Portman Natalie Portman (born Natalie Hershlag, he, נטע-לי הרשלג, ) is an Israeli-born American actress. She has had a prolific film career since her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, receiving mu ...

. From 2015 until 2017, Safran Foer dated actress Michelle Williams.

Criticism

Because of Safran Foer's frequent use of modernist literary devices, he is often named as a polarizing figure in modern literature. In his critical article "Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False",

Harry Siegel Harry Siegel (born 1977) is a senior editor for The Daily Beast. Biography Siegel is a lifelong resident of the Brooklyn area of New York City. He graduated from Brandeis University, Siegel worked at ''The New York Sun'' as an editorial writer an ...

wrote in the ''

New York Press ''New York Press'' was a free alternative weekly in New York City, which was published from 1988 to 2011. The ''Press'' strove to create a rivalry with the ''Village Voice''. ''Press'' editors claimed to have tried to hire away writer Nat Hento ...

'', "Foer is supposed to be our new

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...

, though his fortune-cookie

syllogism A syllogism ( grc-gre, συλλογισμός, ''syllogismos'', 'conclusion, inference') is a kind of logical argument that applies deductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on two propositions that are asserted or assumed to be true. ...

s and pointless illustrations and typographical tricks don't at all match up to or much resemble Roth even at his most inane." In response to charges of historical inaccuracy in ''Everything is Illuminated,'' Safran Foer defended himself in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', writing, "Rather than aligning itself with either 'how things were' or 'how things could have been', the novel measures the difference between the two, and by so doing attempts to reflect a kind of experiential (rather than historical or journalistic) truth."

Bibliography

Fiction

*''

'' (2002) *'' Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close'' (2005) *''

'' (2010) *''

'' (2016)

Non-fiction

*''The Unabridged Pocketbook of Lightning'' (2005, essay, ) *''

'' (2009) *''We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast'' (2019)

Recognition

* 2000 – '' Zoetrope: All-Story'' Fiction Prize * 2003 – New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award * 2007 – included in '' Granta's'' Best of Young American Novelists 2. * 2007 – Holtzbrinck Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin * 2010 – included in ''

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 ...

''s "20 Under 40" list * 2013 – appointed to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council * 2016 – included in ''

The Forward ''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ' ...

's'' Forward 50 list as one of the fifty most influential Jewish-Americans of the year

References

External links

Authortrek page
on Safran Foer; includes numerous links to articles, interview and information.
Who is Augustine?
Exploratory site for Jonathan Safran Foer's 'Everything Is Illuminated' (Novel)
Jonathan Safran Foer 'Bookweb'
on literary website The Ledge, with suggestions for further reading. *
Author interview in Guernica Magazine (Guernicamag.com)
– Guardian Unlimited article
"Author Podcast Interview"
– interview with Paula Shackleton BookBuffet.com
Jonathan Safran Foer: Novels can learn from poetry.
Filmed at

Louisiana Literature festival Louisiana Literature Festival is an annual literary festival which takes place around the third weekend of August at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 35 km (22 mi) north of Copenhagen, Denmark. The festival began in 2010, and each year it featur ...

2012. Video interview by

Louisiana Channel Louisiana Channel is a non-profit web-TV channel based at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, Denmark. By the end of the first year, 28 November 2013, Louisiana Channel had published 130 videos featuring international artists, film m ...

.
Jonathan Safran Foer: Die cutting a novel.
Filmed at

2012. Video by

. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Foer, Jonathan Safran American people of Polish-Jewish descent American vegetarianism activists Living people Magic realism writers New York University faculty Writers from Brooklyn Princeton University alumni Writers from Washington, D.C. Yale University faculty 1977 births 21st-century American novelists Jewish American novelists Postmodern writers American male novelists American male short story writers 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) Novelists from Connecticut Foer family Georgetown Day School alumni Jewish vegetarianism