Gabriel Brownstein

Professor
M.F.A., 1992, Columbia University, FictionB.A., 1988, Oberlin College, English

Gabriel Brownstein joined the faculty at St. John’s in the fall of 2005.  His short story collection, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt. 3W (W.W. Norton & Co.), won the PEN/Hemingway Award in 2002, was a finalist for the Koret Jewish Book Award, and was named as one of the New York Public Library’s 25 Books to Remember of 2002.  His novel, The Man from Beyond (W.W. Norton & Co.), was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, and one of Booklist’s Top 10 Historical Novels in 2005.  His book reviews and criticism have appeared in The Village Voice, The Boston Globe, and The New Leader.  His work has been translated into Dutch and French.

Previous to working at St. John’s, he taught writing at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Books
The Man from Beyond  (W. W. Norton) 2005--a novel, September 2005
Also published in Dutch as De man van verre (Athos) 2006

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt. 3W  (Norton) 2002--a collection of short stories

Also available in a Norton paperback edition (2003); a British paperback (2003), a French edition, L’Etrange Histoire de Benjamin Button, 2e Etage Gauche (Seuil) 2003, and a Dutch edition, Het curieuze verhall van Benjamin Button, Apt. 3w  (Ambo/Anthos) 2003

Stories
“The Man with the Movie Camera,” in Film Comment, December 2003

“Bachelor Party,” in Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction from the Edge, Paul Zakrzewski,ed. (HarperCollins) 2003
 
“The Inventor of Love,” in The Literary Review, summer, 2001

“Musee des Beaux Arts,” in The Hawai’i Review, fall, 2000

“Wakefield, 7E,” in Zoetrope: All Story, summer 2000

“Party Animal,” in The Northwest Review, summer 2000

Essays, Reviews and Criticism
“Fight or Flight,” in The Village Voice, Sept 29-Oct 5, 2004--a review of Philip Roth’s novel, The Plot Against America

“Meister Singer,” in The Village Voice, July 7-13, 2004--a review of the American  Library’s three-volume collected stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer

“American Idle,” in The Village Voice, May 19-25, 2004--a review of Andrei Codrescu’s novel, Wakefield

Introduction to Henry James’s Portrait of a Lady  (Barnes and Noble’s Classics) 2004

“Gender Blender,” on Nerve.com, September 6, 2002--a review of Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel, Middlesex

 “Ben Okri,” in British Writers, Supplement V, George Stade, ed. (Scribner’s) 1999--a 12,000-word critical essay reviewing the author’s work

“Imagining the Millenium, Complete with the Messiah,” in The Boston Globe, April 18, 1999—a review of Melvin Jules Bukiet’s novel, Signs and Wonders

“Another Kind of Death in Venice, and Recollections of a Life,” in The Boston Globe, August 30 1999--a review of Louis Begley’s novel, Mistler’s Exit

“His Lover, His Country, and Himself,” in The Boston Globe, December 28, 1997 --a review of Robert Olen Butler’s novel, The Deep Green Sea

“A Japanese Cinderella,” in The New Leader, November 3-17, 1997--a review of Arthur Golden’s novel Confessions of a Geisha

“Kazuo Ishiguro,” in British Writers, Supplement IV  (Scrbner’s) 1997--a 12,000 word critical essay reviewing the author’s work
 
“A Sure and Sly Virtuouso,” in The New Leader, July 14-28, 1997--a review of  Alan Isler’s collection of stories, The Bacon Fancier
 
“Classroom Booksploitation,” in The New Leader, May 5, 1997--a discussion of  recent anthologies for introductory writing courses

  • Undergraduate Fiction Writing Workshop
  • Graduate Fiction Writing Workshop
  • Short Fiction