Joshua Cohen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Joshua Aaron Cohen (1980-09-06)September 6, 1980 (age 45) Somers Point, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist, story writer |
| Nationality | American Israeli |
| Education | Manhattan School of Music (BM) |
| Period | Contemporary |
| Genre | Jewish,Literature,Speculative Fiction |
| Spouse | Lee Yaron |
| Website | |
| joshuacohen | |
Joshua Aaron Cohen (born September 6, 1980) is an American novelist and story writer, best known for his worksWitz (2010),Book of Numbers (2015), andMoving Kings (2017). Cohen won the 2022Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novelThe Netanyahus (2021).
Cohen grew up inAtlantic City, New Jersey, spent his summers inCape May, New Jersey and went to school at Trocki Hebrew Academy before transferring toMainland Regional High School.[1] He lives inRed Hook, Brooklyn. He reads both German and Hebrew and has translated works in both languages into English.[2] He is married to Israeli journalist Lee Yaron.[3]
Cohen graduated from theManhattan School of Music with a degree in music composition in 2001.[4] He does not have anMFA, and has expressed disdain for the degree, but has taught the course "Long Century, Short Novels" at Columbia University's School of the Arts's MFA program.[5] In 2017,Granta Magazine named him to its decennial list of the Best Young American Writers.[6] Cohen lived in various cities in Eastern Europe between 2001 and 2006, working as a journalist.
Cohen's works have received acclaim.Witz was named a Best Book of 2010 byThe Village Voice.Four New Messages was named a Best Book of 2012 byThe New Yorker.[7]
In an interview by Cohen for theLos Angeles Review of Books,Harold Bloom said, "Call It Sleep by Henry Roth,Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West,Sabbath’s Theater by Philip Roth, and quite possibly yourBook of Numbers are the four best books by Jewish writers in America. YourMoving Kings is a strong and rather hurtful book, but that helps validate it.Book of Numbers, however, is shatteringly powerful. I cannot think of anything by anyone in your generation that is so frighteningly relevant and composed with such continuous eloquence. There are moments in it that seem to transcend our impasse."[8]
Cohen's essays have appeared inHarper's,The New York Times,The New Republic,The New York Times Book Review,Bookforum,The Jewish Daily Forward,Nextbook,Tablet Magazine,Triple Canopy (online magazine),Denver Quarterly,The Believer,The New York Observer,The London Review of Books,N+1 online,Guernica Magazine, and elsewhere.
In 2015, Cohen wrotePCKWCK,[9] a live-written novel.
Cohen was involved with writing the memoir ofEdward Snowden,Permanent Record. According to Snowden, Cohen "help[ed] to transform my rambling reminiscences and capsule manifestos into a book.”The New York Times wrote: "It’s like a recursive loop of life imitating art imitating life; in Cohen’sBook of Numbers, published in 2015, a novelist named Joshua Cohen is hired to ghostwrite the autobiography of a mysterious tech billionaire ... whose search-engine company happens to be sharing information with government agencies."[10]The New Republic wrote: "DespiteMacmillan’s black op to keep the book under wraps, over the past year, New York literary circles have buzzed with the news that novelist (and a contributor toThe New Republic) Joshua Cohen had signed on as the famed whistle-blower’s literary interlocutor, traveling to Russia over the course of eight months to help Snowden, now 36, organize and improve his narrative."[11]
The Netanyahus won the 2021 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction[12] and the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[13]
| Date | Title | Publication | Collected in | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 1 2011 | Imaginary Appreciations of Myself as Hebrew Poet | Guernica Magazine | - | [15] |
| Spring 2011 | Emission | The Paris Review 196 | Four New Messages | [16] |
| Jul 2011 | Cafédämmerung (or Allen in Prague, King of May Day, 1965) | The White Review 2 | - | [17] |
| 2012 | McDonald's | Triple Canopy 16 | Four New Messages | [18] |
| Jul 2012 | The College Borough | Harper's (Jul 2012) | Four New Messages | [19] |
| Jul 1 2012 | Sent | Bomb Magazine 120 | Four New Messages | [20] |
| Dec 7 2012 | Fat | Tablet | - | [21] |
| Mar 3 2017 | A Cinderella Story with an Immigrant Twist | The New Yorker | - | [22] |
| Apr 25 2017 | Uri | Granta 139 | - | [23] |
| May 3 2018 | Mall Camp, Seasons 1 & 2 | Granta 143 | - | [24] |
| October 13 2024 | My Camp | The New Yorker | - | [25] |
