Bialosky at the 2017 Texas Book Festival

Jill Bialosky (born Jill Robin Bialosky, April 13, 1957 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American poet, novelist, essayist and executive book editor. She is the author of four volumes of poetry, three novels, and two recent memoirs. She co-edited with Helen Schulman an anthology, Wanting a Child. Her poems and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, O Magazine, Real Simple, American Scholar, The Kenyon Review, Harvard Review, and chosen for Best American Poetry, among others.[1][2]

Early life

Bialosky grew up in suburban Cleveland, Ohio. Her mother is Iris Bialosky and her father was Milton Bialosky, who died when Bialosky's mother was 24, with three daughters under the age of three.[3] In History of a Suicide Bialosky writes about growing up with four sisters and a widowed mother and her youngest sister, Kim's suicide on April 15, 1990 at age 21.[4]

Writing

Cara Benson in an interview in Bookslut called her "a versatile and accomplished woman of letters. She’s published acclaimed works of poetry, memoir, and fiction, and is an editor and senior executive .... In whichever genre she is writing, to me her work stands out for its compassionate attention to the psyche of the imperfect humans struggling through their lives"[5]

Her free verse poems explore themes of desire, domesticity, and myth.[6] And in an interview with the Los Angeles Review of Books she defines her poetics as having to do with ordinary experiences and everyday living.[7] In Bialosky's poem "History Lesson," she writes of gathering at Rosh Hashanah with her family.[8]

Reception

Subterranean (2001), was a finalist for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets.[9]

Intruder (2008) was a finalist for the Paterson Prize.[10][11][12]

History of a Suicide: My Sister’s Unfinished Life (2011) was a New York Times Bestseller. It received universal praise including a four star People (magazine) review[13] and was deemed one of the top ten books of the year by Entertainment Weekly.[14] It was a finalist for the Ohioana Award[15] and Books for a Better Life.[16]

The Players (2015), "Bialosky’s fifth collection of poems takes cues from the laconic dicta of baseball."[17][18]

The Prize (2015), received broad praise.[19] It was selected as an Editor's Choice by The New York Times Book Review.[20][21]

Personal life

Bialosky received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio University, a Master of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA degree from the University of Iowa’s Writer’s workshop.[22] In Poetry Will Save Your life she recounts the "tragedy of losing a first daughter at 10 hours old when she was 32[23] and then a second baby, this time a son, lost within the first 24 hours of birth, before the healthy birth, finally, of her third child, also a son."[24]

Jill Bialosky is a vice president and executive editor at W.W. Norton.[25] and lives in New York City.

Controversy

On October 4, 2017, the online literary magazine Tourniquet Review published William Logan's review of Poetry Will Save Your Life, in which he accused Bialosky of plagiarism, citing passages in the book that bore similarities to uncredited sources, including Wikipedia articles.[26] Subsequently, The New York Times covered the allegation.[27] TheWalrus.ca later published an article written by William Logan about Jill Bialosky's first memoir, History of a Suicide: My Sister's Unfinished Life, accusing Bialosky of further plagiarism.[28] Jill Bialosky's publisher (Simon & Schuster) and her employer (W.W. Norton) both spoke out in Bialosky's defence.[27] Seventy-two authors signed a Letter to the Editor in The New York Times stating: "We, as writers and friends of literature, wish to register our concern in regard to 'Author Fights Plagiarism Charges by Critic' […] It would be a terrible disservice to Ms. Bialosky and to your readers if the article kept people from appreciating her substantial contributions to American letters." Nowhere in the letter, however, did the signatories dispute the accuracy of Logan's accusations.[29]

Books

Poetry

  • The End of Desire (1999, A. A. Knopf)[30][31][32][33]
  • Subterranean (2001, A. A. Knopf)
  • Intruder (2008, A. A. Knopf)
  • The Players (2015, A. A. Knopf)
  • Asylum: A Personal, Historical, Natural Inquiry in 103 Lyric Sections (2020, Knopf)[34]

Memoir

  • History of a Suicide: My Sister's Unfinished Life (2011, Atria Books)
  • Poetry Will Save Your Life--A Memoir (May 2017, Atria Books)[35][36]

Fiction

  • House Under Snow: A Novel (2002, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)[37]
  • The Life Room: A Novel (2007, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • The Prize (2015, Counterpoint)

References

  1. ↑ "Bialosky, Jill". worldcat.org. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
  2. ↑ Ulin, David L. (20 February 2011). "Finding words to talk about the hush-hush topic of suicide". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  3. ↑ Kohda Hazelton, Claire (6 November 2015). "History of a Suicide by Jill Bialosky review – a sister's search for answers". theguardian.com. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  4. ↑ Adams, Tim (16 March 2015). "History of a Suicide: My Sister's Unfinished Life review – not one tragedy but many". theguardian.com. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  5. ↑ "An Interview with Jill Bialosky". bookslut.com. November 2015. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
  6. ↑ Birnbaum, Robert (28 October 2002). "Author Interview: Jill Bialosky". identitytheory.com. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
  7. ↑ "Jill Bialosky". poetryfoundation.org. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
  8. ↑ Mishan, Ligaya (14 September 2015). "The Artistry in Jill Bialosky's Pastry Brush". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  9. ↑ "Nonfiction Book Review: SUBTERRANEAN by Jill Bialosky, Author. Knopf $23 (96p) ISBN 978-0-375-41314-8". PublishersWeekly.com. 17 December 2001. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  10. ↑ "Jill Bialosky". Poetry Foundation. 18 December 2017. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  11. ↑ "'Intruder: Poems' by Jill Bialosky". Los Angeles Times. 12 April 2009. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  12. ↑ "on Intruder, poems by Jill Bialosky (Knopf) – and an interview with the poet". On the Seawall: A Literary Website by Ron Slate (GD). 29 March 2009. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  13. ↑ "Picks and Pans Main: Books". PEOPLE.com. 7 March 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  14. ↑ Adams, Tim (16 March 2015). "History of a Suicide: My Sister's Unfinished Life review – not one tragedy but many". the Guardian. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  15. ↑ "Award Finalists". Ohioana Library. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  16. ↑ Bialosky, Jill (7 March 2017). The Players: Poems. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. pp. 77–. ISBN 978-0-8041-7095-6.
  17. ↑ "Briefly Noted Book Reviews". The New Yorker. 13 April 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  18. ↑ Cheung, Ysabelle (16 October 2015). "How to Write a Poem About Baseball". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  19. ↑ "The Prize". Counterpoint Press. 2 October 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  20. ↑ Kokernot, Sarah (27 September 2015). "Marriage Plots". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  21. ↑ "Briefly Noted Book Reviews". The New Yorker. 21 September 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  22. ↑ Bialosky, Jill (17 August 2017). "Jill Bialosky: The Time I Moved to New York City to Be a Poet". lithub.com. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  23. ↑ Bialosky, Jill (11 September 2015). "Two Kinds of Goodbyes". slate.com. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  24. ↑ "'Poetry Will Save Your Life' is a sketchbook of personal experience through the lens of poetry". slate.com. 24 August 2017. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  25. ↑ "'Jill Bialosky". slate.com. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  26. ↑ "Jill Bialosky, Poetry Will Save Your Life: A Memoir (Atria Books, 2017)". Tourniquetreview.com. 4 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  27. 1 2 Salam, Maya; Stevens, Matt (4 October 2017). "Jill Bialosky Says Plagiarism Claims 'Should Not Distract' From Her Poetry Memoir". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  28. ↑ "New Plagiarism Accusations Against Bestselling Author Jill Bialosky | the Walrus". 10 November 2017.
  29. ↑ "72 Friends of Literature, in Defense of the Poet Jill Bialosky". The New York Times. 10 October 2017. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  30. ↑ Thomas, Robert McG. Jr. (12 March 1999). "Harry Ford, 80, Poetry Editor With Unerring Ear, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  31. ↑ Bialosky, Jill (11 June 2014). "The End of Desire by Jill Bialosky". Penguin Random House Canada. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  32. ↑ "Another Loss to Stop For". The New Yorker. 10 March 1997. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  33. ↑ The Nation. Nation Company. July 1997.
  34. ↑ Review: Asylum: A Personal, Historical, Natural Inquiry in 103 Lyric Sections, Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 18 Oct. 2020.
  35. ↑ Lund, Elizabeth; Bialosky, Jill (8 August 2017). "Can poetry actually save your life?". Washington Post. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  36. ↑ The Christian Science Monitor (24 August 2017). "'Poetry Will Save Your Life' is a sketchbook of personal experience through the lens of poetry". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  37. ↑ Porter, Michael (25 August 2002). "BOOKS IN BRIEF: FICTION". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
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