Jonathan Dee (born May 19, 1962) is an American novelist and non-fiction writer. His fifth novel, ''The Privileges'', was a finalist for the 2011

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...

Early life

Dee was born in New York City. He graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, where he studied fiction writing with

John Hersey John Richard Hersey (June 17, 1914 – March 24, 1993) was an American writer and journalist. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to no ...

Career

Dee's first job out of college was at ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...

'', as an Associate Editor and personal assistant to

George Plimpton George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American writer. He is known for his sports writing and for helping to found ''The Paris Review'', as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was known for " participat ...

. Early in his tenure with Plimpton, Dee helped pull off the popular April Fool's joke about Sidd Finch, a fictitious baseball pitcher Plimpton wrote about for ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

''. Dee has published eight novels, including ''The Lover of History'', ''The Liberty Campaign'', ''St. Famous'', ''Palladio'', ''The Privileges'', ''A Thousand Pardons'', ''The Locals'', and ''Sugar Street''. He is a staff writer for ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazi ...

'', and contributor to ''

Harper's ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...

''. He taught in the graduate writing programs at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

, and is currently a professor in the graduate writing program at Syracuse University. Dee collaborated on the oral biography of Plimpton, "George, Being George", published by Random House in 2008. He interviewed Hersey and co-interviewed

Grace Paley Grace Paley (December 11, 1922 – August 22, 2007), Goodside, was an American short story author, poet, teacher, and political activist. Paley wrote three critically acclaimed collections of short stories, which were compiled in the Pulitzer Pr ...

for ''

''s The Art of Fiction series.

Awards and fellowships

Dee was nominated for a National Magazine Award in 2010 for criticism in Harper's. He has received fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. His 2010 novel, ''The Privileges'', won the 2011 Prix Fitzgerald prize and was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He was the second winner of the

St. Francis College Literary Prize The St. Francis College Literary Prize is a biennial literary award inaugurated in 2009. The prize of is presented to an author in honor of a third to fifth book of fiction and is meant to offer encouragement and significant financial support to a ...

Personal life

Dee lives in the historic John G. Ayling House in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

, with his partner, the writer

Dana Spiotta Dana Spiotta (born 1966) is an American author. She was a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, a Guggenheim Fellowship, thJohn Updike Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. Sh ...

Bibliography

Novels

* ''The Lover of History'' (1990) (Houghton Mifflin) * ''The Liberty Campaign'' (1993) (Pocket Books) * ''St. Famous'' (1996) (Doubleday) * ''Palladio'' (2002) (Doubleday) * ''The Privileges'' (2010) (Random House) * ''A Thousand Pardons'' (2013) (Random House) * ''The Locals'' (2017) (Random House) * ''Sugar Street'' (2022) (Grove Press)

Book reviews

——————— ;Bibliography notes

References

External links

Ready-made rebellion: The empty tropes of transgressive fictionJonathan Dee on the place of the novel in a money-driven society
Clé des langues, 2012
"Watch Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself"

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

. May 16, 2014]. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dee, Jonathan 1962 births Living people 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American novelists American male non-fiction writers American male novelists Columbia University staff The New Yorker people St. Francis College Literary Prize Syracuse University faculty Yale University alumni