Ben Greenman (born September 28, 1969) is an American novelist, magazine journalist, and publisher who has written nearly thirty fiction and non-fiction books, including collaborations with pop-music artists likeQuestlove,George Clinton,Brian Wilson,Gene Simmons,Steven Van Zandt,Sly Stone, and others. His books have been translated into many other languages, including Italian, Japanese, Dutch, and Spanish. From 2000 to 2014, he was an editor atThe New Yorker. He now serves as executive editor ofAuwa Books, an imprint founded byQuestlove in collaboration withFarrar, Straus and Giroux.
Greenman was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Richard Greenman, an academic physician, and Bernadine Heller-Greenman, an art history professor. He has two younger brothers, Aaron and Josh. He lived briefly in Mountain View, California, and was raised in Miami, where he graduated fromMiami Palmetto Senior High School in 1986. He attendedYale University, where he graduatedsumma cum laude in 1990. After working atMiami New Times, Greenman enrolled in a Ph.D. program in literature atNorthwestern University but left after earning his master's degree. He moved to New York City and worked for a variety of book packagers, publishers, and magazines, including Michael Wolff & Company andYahoo! Internet Life. In 2000, he went to work atThe New Yorker, where he was an editor until 2014.
In 2001 McSweeneys published Greenman's debut,Superbad, a collection of humor pieces and serious short fiction that included several satirical musicals. It has the same title as, but not the same contents as, thepopular teen comedy; Greenman engaged in a fake feud withSeth Rogen over the title. The book's cover art was a painting by the artistMark Tansey.[1] Greenman's next book,Superworse, the Novel: A Remix of Superbad, was published in 2004 bySoft Skull, an independent Brooklyn publisher. It refashioned the book into a novel that was overseen and edited by a man named Laurence Once. Kirkus called it "something extraordinary."[2]
In 2007, Macadam/Cage published Greenman's second collection of stories. It was selected by Barnes & Noble for its Discover Great Writers series, and included both comic work and more serious stories like "In the Air Room," which fictionalized the famous controversy overJames McNeill Whistler and thePeacock Room.[3] Elizabeth Gold, writing on SFGate, said that "the best of the stories in this collection are more than funny."[4]
Correspondences
In 2008, Hotel St. George press released a handmade and letterpress-printed edition of Greenman's bookCorrespondences that included an intricate book casing that unfolded to reveal three accordion books and a postcard. The project was reviewed favorably by theLos Angeles Times[5] andTime Out.[6]
In 2009, Melville House published Greenman's second novel, which was a fictionalized biography of a funk-rock star based loosely onSly Stone,Marvin Gaye,Curtis Mayfield, and others. The funk-rock starSwamp Dogg recorded a theme song for the book.[7] Later in 2009, Greenman signed withHarperCollins: the first book announced wasWhat He's Poised To Do, an expanded paperback based on the material fromCorrespondences. The book was praised bySteve Almond in theLos Angeles Times.[8]
In 2010, Greenman adapted the short stories of the Russian masterAnton Chekhov, updating them by replacing their characters with modern celebrities. Pop Matters, praising the collection, said "the very, very best of these stories make us weep."[9]
Greenman's novel,The Slippage, was published byHarper Perennial in 2013. The book included a character who was a chart artist and whose work consisted of meta-charts; Greenman created a number of them and posted them at ILoveCharts.com andMcSweeneys, among other places.The New York Times praised the novel as "fluid and commanding."[10]
In the summer of 2016, Little A publishedEmotional Rescue, a collection of essays about pop music and relationships.[11][self-published source?]
Greenman has also collaborated on celebrity memoirs. His most frequent collaborator has beenQuestlove; he co-wrote the hip-hop memoir Mo Meta Blues (2014), a food-themed book called Something to Food About (2015), a book about creativity and innovation called Creative Quest (2016), a conceptual cookbook called Mixtape Potluck (2018), and two books of music history, Music is History (2021) and Hip-Hop is History (2024).[12] In addition, he wrote memoirs with the funk musicianGeorge Clinton,[13] the funk musicianSly Stone,Brian Wilson, co-founder of theBeach Boys,Steven van Zandt, as well as with the actressMariel Hemingway,[14]Gene Simmons ofKiss,[15] andSimon Cowell ofAmerican Idol. The Questlove, Wilson, and Van Zandt books were best-sellers.[16][17]
Greenman is married to art director Gail Ghezzi and has two sons: Daniel and Jakob, both of whom were born when the couple lived inBrooklyn. The family currently lives inRidgewood, New Jersey.
Greenman, Ben (2001).Superbad : stories and pieces. Brooklyn, NY: McSweeney's Books.
— (2007).A circle is a balloon and compass both : stories about human love. San Francisco: MacAdam Cage.
— (2008).Correspondences. Brooklyn, NY: Hotel St. George Press.[22]
— (2010).Celebrity Chekhov : stories by Anton Chekhov. Translated by Constance Garnett; adapted and celebritized by Ben Greenman. New York: Harper Perennial.
— (2010).What he's poised to do : stories. New York: Harper Perennial.
