Michael Ventura (born October 31, 1945) is an American novelist, screenwriter, film director, essayist and cultural critic.

History

Michael Ventura commenced his career as a journalist at the ''

Austin Sun The ''Austin Sun'' was a biweekly counterculture newspaper that was published in Austin, Texas, between 1974 and 1978. The publication was similar in nature to ''Rolling Stone'' during the latter's formative years. The ''Austin Sun'' was instr ...

'', a counter-culture bi-weekly newspaper published in the 1970s. In 1978, Ventura co-founded the

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...

along with

Joie Davidow Joie Davidow is an author and editor best known as co-founder of ''LA Weekly'' and ''L.A. Style'' magazines, and for her memoir ''Marked for Life''. Early life and education Davidow was born in Philadelphia, United States, to a Romanian Jewish m ...

, Jay Levin, and Ginger Varney. Ventura is best known for his long-running column, "Letters at 3 A.M.", which first appeared in ''

'' in the early 1980s and continued in the ''

Austin Chronicle Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

'' until 2015. One of his essay collections -- '' Letters at 3 A.M.: Reports on Endarkenment'' (1994) -- is an anthology of his most well-known published columns from this period of work. His first essay collection, '' Shadow-Dancing in the U.S.A.'' (1985) also collected work that originally appeared in alternative weeklies and other journalistic publications. Ventura has published three novels: '' Night Time Losing Time'' (1989), '' The Zoo Where You're Fed to God'' (1994), and '' The Death of Frank Sinatra'' (1996). An excerpt from his novel about Miriam of Magdala was published in the third issue of the CalArts literary journal ''

Black Clock ''Black Clock'' was an American literary magazine that published twenty-one issues over twelve years. Edited by Steve Erickson, the magazine was "dedicated to fiction, poetry and creative essays that explore the frontier of constructive anarchy. ...

'' in 2005. With psychologist

James Hillman James Hillman (April 12, 1926 – October 27, 2011) was an American psychologist. He studied at, and then guided studies for, the C.G. Jung Institute in Zürich. He founded a movement toward archetypal psychology and retired into private practic ...

, Ventura co-authored the 1992 bestseller ''

We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy – And the World's Getting Worse A contraction is a shortened version of the spoken and written forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters and sounds. In linguistic analysis, contractions should not be confused with crasis, abbreviations ...

''. Other books by Ventura include ''If I Was a Highway'' with

Butch Hancock Butch Hancock (born July 12, 1945, in Lubbock, Texas) is an American country recording artist and songwriter. He is a member of The Flatlanders along with Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, but he has principally performed solo. Background and ...

(2017), ''Cassavetes Directs: John Cassavetes and the Making of Love Streams'' (2008), and ''Marilyn Monroe: From Beginning to End'' (2008). Ventura appears as a fictional character in

Steve Erickson Stephen Michael Erickson is an American novelist. The author of influential works such as '' Days Between Stations'', '' Tours of the Black Clock'' and '' Zeroville'', he is the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the ...

's 1996 novel, ''

Amnesiascope ''Amnesiascope'' is a 1996 novel by Steve Erickson. Set in Los Angeles after a cataclysmic earthquake, the novel incorporates elements of other novels that Erickson had published, such as the silent film from his first novel, ''Days Between Stati ...

''. He also wrote the screenplay for ''

Echo Park Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake, Los Angeles, Silver Lake to the west and Chinato ...

'' (1986), among other films, including '' Roadie'' (1980). He curated the

Sundance Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acte ...

's 1989 retrospective on

John Cassavetes John Nicholas Cassavetes (December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an American filmmaker and actor. He began as an actor in film and television before helping to pioneer modern American independent cinema as a writer and director, often self- ...

Bibliography

Novels

* '' Night Time Losing Time'' (1989) * '' The Zoo Where You're Fed to God'' (1994) * '' The Death of Frank Sinatra'' (1996)

Nonfiction

* '' Shadow-Dancing in the U.S.A.'' (1985) * ''

'' (1992) (with

) * '' Letters at 3 A.M.: Reports on Endarkenment'' (1994) * ''

Cassavetes Directs Cassavetes () is a Greek surname. Notable people with the surname include: *John Cassavetes (1929–1989), Greek-American independent film director ** Katherine Cassavetes (1906–1983), his mother, an actress **Nick Cassavetes (born 1959), his son ...

'' (2007)

Screenplays

* '' Roadie'' (1980) * ''

'' (1986)

Film director

* '' I'm Almost Not Crazy: John Cassavetes, the Man and His Work'' (1984)

Awards

* USA PEN award * Los Angeles Press Club Award * Upton Sinclair Award from the

Liberty Hill Foundation The Liberty Hill Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Sarah Pillsbury, heir to the Minnesota Pillsbury baking fortune, along with Anne Mendel, Larry Janss and Win McCormack, in 1976. Its motto is "Change. Not Charity." The name of t ...

References

External links

* *
Archive of Ventura's column in the Austin Chronicle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ventura, Michael 1945 births Living people 20th-century American novelists American male screenwriters American columnists American male novelists Film directors from New York (state) American male essayists 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American male writers