Sam Lipsyte (born 1968) is an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

and

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

writer.

Life

The son of the sports journalist

Robert Lipsyte Robert Michael Lipsyte (born January 16, 1938) is an American sports journalist and author and former Ombudsman for ESPN. He is a member of the Board of Contributors for ''USA Todays Forum Page, part of the newspaper's Opinion section. He re ...

, Sam Lipsyte 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 ...

and raised in

Closter, New Jersey Closter (Westergaard, Barbara"Closter: Bergen" ''New Jersey: A Guide to the State'', p. 78. Rutgers University Press, 2006. . Accessed July 22, 2011. "Known locally as the "hub of the Northern Valley," Closter (pronounced with a long ''o'') was ...

, where he attended

Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

. He attended

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1990. At Brown, Lipsyte lived with Steven Johnson. 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'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', ''

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', ''

Nouvelle Revue Française ''La Nouvelle Revue Française'' (; "The New French Review") is a literary magazine based in France. In France, it is often referred to as the ''NRF''. History and profile The magazine was founded in 1909 by a group of intellectuals including An ...

'', ''

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 ...

'',
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 (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...

in 2010, and in the United Kingdom by Old Street Publishing. In May 2011,

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

announced development of a comedy, "People City," based on Lipsyte's work, with Lipsyte serving as writer and executive producer. He lives in Manhattan and teaches fiction 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 ...

Awards

His novel ''Home Land'' was a

New York Times Notable Book of the Year ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

for 2005 and winner of the inaugural 2004

Believer Book Award Believer Book Award is an American literary award presented yearly by '' The Believer'' magazine to novels and story collections, nonfiction books or essay collections, poetry collections, and, beginning in 2021 (awarding to books published in 2020) ...

. ''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 Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

Bibliography

*''Venus Drive'', Open City Books, 2000, *''The Subject Steve'', Broadway Books, 2001, ; reprint Random House, Inc., 2002, *''Home Land'', Flamingo, 2004, ; Macmillan, 2005, *''

The Ask ''The Ask'' is a novel by Sam Lipsyte, published by Macmillan Publishers (United States), Macmillan in 2010 (). Summary Per Michael K. Walonen, the novel: focuses on the American university, long seen as a bastion of resistance or at least indif ...

'', Macmillan, 2010, *''The Fun Parts'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012, *''Hark'', Simon & Schuster, 2019, *''Friend of the Pod'', Gagosian, 2022, (novella) *''No One Left to Come Looking for You'', Simon & Schuster, 2022,

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,
"April Fool's Day"
''The revolution will be accessorized: BlackBook presents dispatches from the new counterculture'', Editor Aaron Hicklin, HarperCollins, 2006,

References

External links

"I Start From a Place of Outrage and Sadness": A conversation on humor in fiction with Elisa Albert, Steve Almond, Brock Clarke, Sam Lipsyte, Zachary Martin, John McNally, and Deb Olin Unferth in ''Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts'' (24.2)"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 1, 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 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lipsyte, Sam 1968 births Living people 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American online publication editors Columbia University faculty Jewish American novelists Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest alumni Brown University alumni People from Closter, New Jersey People from New York City Novelists from New Jersey Writers from New York City American male short story writers Believer Book Award winners 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) 21st-century American Jews