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John Burnham Schwartz (born 1965) is an American novelist and screenwriter. Schwartz is best known for his novels Reservation Road (1998) and The Commoner (2008). His fifth novel, Northwest Corner, a sequel to Reservation Road, was published in 2011.[1] He is an editor at large at Penguin Random House.[2]
John Burnham Schwartz | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1965 (age 58–59) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation |
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| Education | Manhattan Country School Harvard College (BA) |
| Parents | Alan U. Schwartz Paula Dunaway |
| Website | |
| johnburnhamschwartz | |
John Burnham Schwartz was born in 1965, in New York City, the son of Alan U. Schwartz, an entertainment attorney, and Paula Schwartz (née Dunaway), an editor and writer.[3] Schwartz's parents later apparently divorced; in 1983 his mother married the poet W. S. Merwin, and was known as Paula Merwin.[4][5]
Growing up in New York City, Schwartz attended the Manhattan Country School.[6] He later attended Harvard College, where he majored in Japanese studies.[6] After graduating in 1987, with a B.A. in East Asian Studies,[3][7] he initially accepted a position with a Wall Street investment bank, before finally turning the position down, after selling his first novel.[4][6] That book, Bicycle Days, a coming of age story about a young American man in Japan, was published in 1989 on his 24th birthday, and garnered strong reviews.[4][7] In 1991 he was a recipient of a Lyndhurst Foundation Award.[3]
Schwartz's second novel Reservation Road (1998), about a family tragedy and its aftermath, was critically acclaimed, and in 2007 was made into a major motion picture.[8] The film, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, and Jennifer Connelly, was directed by Terry George, based on a screenplay that was co-written by Schwartz and George.[4][9]
Schwartz went on to publish Claire Marvel (2002), a love story set in the United States and France,[10][11] and, in 2008, The Commoner, a novel inspired by the life of Empress Michiko of Japan, the current empress and crown princess of Japan, and the first commoner to marry into the Japanese imperial family.[4]
He was a co-writer, with Sam Levinson and Samuel Baum, of the screenplay for The Wizard of Lies, a 2017 HBO movie about the disgraced financier Bernie Madoff, based on the non-fiction book of the same title by Diana B. Henriques; the screenplay was a 2018 nominee for a Writers Guild of America Award, for an adapted long-form program.[12]
Schwartz has contributed articles to publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Boston Globe, and Vogue.[3] He has taught at Harvard, the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, and Sarah Lawrence College.[3] He is the Literary Director of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference, based in Ketchum, Idaho.[13]
He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, screenwriter and food writer Aleksandra Crapanzano, and their son Garrick.[3][14]
- Bicycle Days (1989)
- Reservation Road (1998)
- Claire Marvel (2002)
- The Commoner (2008)
- Northwest Corner (2011)
- The Red Daughter (2019)
- The Wizard of Lies (2017) – co-screenwriter, with Sam Levinson and Samuel Baum[12]
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