Michael Mark Brodsky (born Aug 2, 1948) is a scientific/medical editor, novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels ''
Xman'' and ''
***'', as well as for his translation of
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...
's ''
Eleuthéria''.
Early life and education
Michael Brodsky was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, the son of Martin and Marian Brodsky. He attended the
Bronx High School of Science
The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Spec ...
.
[''Detour'', author information] He received a 1969 BA from
Columbia College, Columbia University
Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college of Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded by the Church of England in 1754 as King' ...
, taught math and science in New York for a year, attended
Case Western Reserve University medical school
Case Western Reserve School of Medicine (CWRU SOM, CaseMed) is the medical school of Case Western Reserve University, a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. It is the largest biomedical research center in Ohio.
History
On November 1, ...
for two years, then taught French and English in Cleveland until 1975.
Brodsky returned to New York City in 1976, working as an editor for the Institute for Research on Rheumatic Diseases. He married Laurence Lacoste. They are the parents of two children, Joseph Matthew and Matthew Daniel. From 1985 to 1991, Brodsky was an editor with
Springer-Verlag
Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing.
Originally founded in 1842 in ...
. After 1991, he was with the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
.
Brodsky lives on
Roosevelt Island
Roosevelt Island is an island in New York City's East River, within the borough of Manhattan. It lies between Manhattan Island to the west, and the borough of Queens, on Long Island, to the east. Running from the equivalent of East 46th to 85 ...
.
Bibliography
Novels
*''
Detour
__NOTOC__
A detour or (British English: diversion) is a (normally temporary) route taking traffic around an area of prohibited or reduced access, such as a construction site. Standard operating procedure for many roads departments is to route an ...
'', 1978
* ''Circuits'', 1983
* ''
Xman'',
Four Walls Eight Windows
Four Walls Eight Windows was an American independent book publisher in New York City. Known as 4W8W or Four Walls, the company was notable for its dual commitment to progressive politics and adventurous, edgy literary fiction.
History
Four W ...
, 1987
* ''
Dyad
Dyad or dyade may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Dyad (music), a set of two notes or pitches
* ''Dyad'' (novel), by Michael Brodsky, 1989
* ''Dyad'' (video game), 2012
* ''Dyad 1909'' and ''Dyad 1929'', ballets by Wayne McGregor
Other uses ...
'', Four Walls Eight Windows, 1989
* ''
***'', Four Walls Eight Windows, 1994
* ''
We Can Report Them'', Four Walls Eight Windows, 1999
Short stories
* ''Wedding Feast'', 1981
* ''Project'', 1982
* ''X in Paris'', 1988
* ''Three Goat Songs'', 1991
* ''Southernmost'', 1996
* ''Limit Point'', 2007
Plays
* ''Terrible Sunlight'', 1980
* ''Packet Piece'', 1982
* ''No Packet Piece'', 1982
* ''Dose Center'', 1990
* ''Night of the Chair'', 1990
* ''Six Scenes: A Barracks Brawl'', 1994
* ''The Anti-Muse'', reading 1996, performance 2000
Translation
* ''
Eleuthéria'', by
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...
, written 1947, suppressed, published 1995
Nonfiction
*"Svevo: The Artist as Analyzand", ''Review of Existential Psychology and Psychiatry'', 15 no. 2-3 (1977), pp 112–133.
*"Toward the Plane of the Sacred: Hafftka’s Great Chain of Being
essayin th
for
Michael Hafftka "A Retrospective: Large Oils 1985-2003" (2004).
[Hafftka was the illustrator (cover and some internal) for Brodsky's early fiction, and later for ]Limit Point
In mathematics, a limit point, accumulation point, or cluster point of a set S in a topological space X is a point x that can be "approximated" by points of S in the sense that every neighbourhood of x with respect to the topology on X also contai ...
.
Further reading
A short biography, and brief summaries of Brodsky's longer fiction and critical reception can be found here:
*Herman, Peter G., "Michael Brodsky", ''World Authors, 1995-2000'' Ed. Clifford Thompson and Mari Rich. New York: H. W. Wilson Company (2003). pp 113–115.
*''Contemporary Authors New Revision Series'', vol 147 (2006) pp 56–8.
Brief summaries of his shorter fiction, critical reception, and quotations from Brodsky on his own fiction, can be found here:
*Hawley, John C., "Michael Brodsky (2 August 1948-)", ''American Short-Story Writers Since World War II'', Fourth Series. Ed. Patrick Meanor and Joseph McNicholas. ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'' Vol. 244. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. pp 34–39. Onlin
here
References
''CANRS'' refers to ''Contemporary Authors New Revision Series'', and ''DLB'' refers to ''Dictionary of Literary Biography''. Full citations are above.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brodsky, Michael
American editors
Postmodernists
Living people
1948 births
Columbia College (New York) alumni
People from Roosevelt Island