Printable view of Jonathan Escoffery

Listed as:

Fiction Writer

Public address:

Oakland, CA

California US

Bio:

Jonathan Escoffery is the author of If I Survive You, a New York Times and Booklist Editor’s Choice, an IndieNext Pick, and an International Bestseller. If I Survive You was nominated for more than a dozen prizes and awards internationally, including the National Book Award, the Dublin Literary Award, the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, the PEN/ Robert W. Bingham Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the Story Prize, and was a finalist for the Booker Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize, and the Southern Book Prize. If I Survive You received American Short Fiction‘s 2023 Constellation Award for a Story Collection and was named Miami New Times’ 2023 Best Book by a Local Author. It was named a ‘best’ book of 2022 by NPR, The New Yorker, Entertainment Weekly, People, TIME, Oprah Daily, L.A. Times, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Vox, Kirkus, BookPage, Real Simple, Literary Hub, and elsewhere.

In 2023, Jonathan was named among the 36 Forces Shaping the Cultural Conversation by Harper’s Bazaar. He was a 2021-2023 Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and won The Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize for Fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 2020. His story “Under the Ackee Tree” was among the trio that won the Paris Review the 2020 ASME Award for Fiction from the American Society of Magazine Editors, and was subsequently included in The Best American Magazine Writing 2020. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Observer, The Paris Review, Oprah Daily, Electric Literature, Zyzzyva, American Short Fiction, and elsewhere.

In North America, If I Survive You is published by MCDxFSG (U.S.) and McClelland and Stewart (Canada). It is published in the UK and Commonwealth by 4th Estate Books, and is published in translation in Germany by Piper Verlag and in Spain by Alianza. It will be published in translation in France by Albin Michel (September, 2024), in Turkey by Livera Yayınevi, in Kuwait by Kalemat, and in Italy by Fazi.

Gives readings:

Yes

Travels for readings:

Yes

In which languages are you fluent?:

English

Twitter/X:

@J_Escoffery

Raised in:

Miami, FL

Florida

Website:

https://jonathanescoffery.com [2]

Prizes won:

2021-2023 Wallace Stegner Fellowship, Stanford University.
2020 Plimpton Prize for Fiction, The Paris Review, for “Under the Ackee Tree.”
2020 National Endowment for the Arts (Prose) Literature Fellowship.
2020 ASME National Magazine Award for Fiction, The Paris Review, for “Under the Ackee Tree.”
2019 Aspen Words Emerging Writer Fellowship.
2018 Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award, for “Chasing Carlos.”
2017 Kimbilio Fiction Fellowship.
2017 Ivan Gold Fellowship (The Writers’ Room of Boston).
2017 Somerville Arts Council Artist Fellowship.
2016 Waasnode Fiction Prize Winner, Passages North, for “In Flux.”

Literary Agent:

Renée Zuckerbrot

Education:

University of Minnesota

University of Southern California

Writers Retreats:

Anderson Center Artist Residency Program

Aspen Summer Words Writing Conference and Literary Festival

Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference

Identifies as:

Jamaican American

Prefers to work with:

Any