Lev Grossman (born June 26, 1969[1]) is an American writer, notably the author of the novels Warp, Codex,[2] and The Magicians, published by Viking Press in 2009.[3] He is a senior writer and book critic for TIME, and is co-author of the TIME.com blog TechLand.[4]
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Writing
Grossman has written for The New York Times, Salon.com, Lingua Franca, Entertainment Weekly, Time Out New York, The Wall Street Journal, and The Village Voice. He has served as a member of the board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle and as the chair of the Fiction Awards Panel.[5]
In writing for Time, he has also covered the consumer electronics industry, reporting on video games, blogs, viral videos and Web comics like Penny Arcade and Achewood. In 2006, he traveled to Japan to cover the unveiling of the Wii console.[6] He has interviewed Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Salman Rushdie, Neil Gaiman, Joan Didion, Jonathan Franzen, J.K. Rowling, and Johnny Cash. He wrote one of the earliest pieces on Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series.[7] A piece written by Grossman on the game Halo 3 was criticized for casting gamers in an "unfavorable light."[8]
In response to his novel Warp receiving largely negative customer reviews, he submitted fake reviews to Amazon using false names. He then recounted these actions in an essay titled "Terrors of the Amazon."[9]
Personal life
Grossman is the twin brother of video game designer and novelist Austin Grossman, and brother of sculptor Bathsheba Grossman. He is an alumnus of Lexington High School and Harvard College. Grossman attended a Ph.D. program in comparative literature for three years at Yale University, but left before completing his dissertation. He lives in Brooklyn.
On Wikipedia
Grossman has poked fun at misinformation about him on his own Wikipedia entry. On February 4, 2009, an anonymous editor falsely claimed, "Lev Grossman had died on 27 January 2009 in a Hospice outside Boston from lung cancer," prompting a reaction from Grossman:
| “ | Even though over the weekend my Wikipedia entry was changed to show that I died in January, I didn't in fact die in January. I'm going to die in the future...I was going to correct it, but it's bad form to edit your own Wikipedia entry. Plus my family was enjoying all the wreaths.[10] | ” |
Writings
Grossman’s latest book The Magicians was published in August 2009 by Viking/Penguin. The Magicians is a contemporary dark fantasy about Quentin Coldwater, an unusually gifted young man who obsesses over Fillory, the magical land of his favorite childhood books. Unexpectedly admitted to Brakebills, a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, Quentin receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery. After graduation, he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart. [1]
- Warp, New York: St. Martin's Griffin/Macmillan, 1997 ISBN 978-0312170592
- Codex, New York: Harcourt, 2004. ISBN 978-0151010660
- The Magicians, New York: Viking/Penguin, 2009. ISBN 978-0670020553
External links
- Official Site
- Grossman's "Nerd World" Blog
- 2006 Person of the Year: You
- Literary criticism and other articles
- The Year of Mathemagical Thinking
- Apple's New Calling: the iPhone
- Interview with Lev Grossman on the Fantasy Book Review
- Washington Post review of The Magicians
- Seattle Times review of The Magicians
References
- ^ "Lev Grossman" in Marquis' Who's Who on the Web [database online] Marquis Who's Who. Retrieved 2007-03-05.
- ^ Interview with Lev Grossman - Codex, Harcourt Trade Publishers
- ^ Publication information on The Magicians
- ^ Time.com Biography
- ^ National Book Critics Circle blog - Critical Mass: Lev Grossman Predicts
- ^ A Game For All Ages
- ^ Stephenie Meyer: A New J.K. Rowling?
- ^ Time Magazine Takes Shots at Gamers with Halo 3 Article
- ^ Lev Grossman. Terrors of the Amazon, Salon.com, March 2, 1999
- ^ Grossman, Lev (February 9, 2009). "Star Trek; Star Wars; Plus, My Death Was Somewhat Exaggerated". Nerd World. time.com. http://nerdworld.blogs.time.com/2009/02/09/star-trek-star-wars-plus-my-death-was-somewhat-exaggerated/. Retrieved February 10, 2009.
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