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Michael Brodsky

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael Brodsky
Born (1948-08-02) August 2, 1948 (age 76)
New York City, United States
OccupationNovelist, Editor
NationalityAmerican
Literary movementPostmodernism
Notable worksXman,
***
Website
webdelsol.com/4Walls8Windows/Michael_Brodsky

Michael Mark Brodsky (born Aug 2, 1948[1][2]) is a scientific/medical editor, novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels Xman and ***, as well as for his translation of Samuel Beckett's Eleuthéria.

Early life and education

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Michael Brodsky was born in New York City, the son of Martin and Marian Brodsky. He attended the Bronx High School of Science.[3] He received a 1969 BA from Columbia College, Columbia University, taught math and science in New York for a year, attended Case Western Reserve University medical school for two years, then taught French and English in Cleveland until 1975.[3]

Brodsky returned to New York City in 1976, working as an editor for the Institute for Research on Rheumatic Diseases. He married Laurence Lacoste.[4] They are the parents of two children, Joseph Matthew and Matthew Daniel. From 1985 to 1991, Brodsky was an editor with Springer-Verlag. After 1991, he was with the United Nations.[5]

Brodsky lives on Roosevelt Island.[6]

Bibliography

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Novels

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Short stories

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  • Wedding Feast, 1981
  • Project, 1982
  • X in Paris, 1988
  • Three Goat Songs, 1991
  • Southernmost, 1996
  • Limit Point, 2007

Plays

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  • Terrible Sunlight, 1980
  • Packet Piece, 1982
  • No Packet Piece, 1982
  • Dose Center, 1990
  • Night of the Chair, 1990
  • Six Scenes: A Barracks Brawl, 1994
  • The Anti-Muse, reading 1996, performance 2000

Translation

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Nonfiction

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  • "Svevo: The Artist as Analyzand", Review of Existential Psychology and Psychiatry, 15 no. 2-3 (1977), pp 112–133.
  • "Toward the Plane of the Sacred: Hafftka’s Great Chain of Being" essay in the catalogue for Michael Hafftka "A Retrospective: Large Oils 1985-2003" (2004).[7]

Further reading

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A short biography, and brief summaries of Brodsky's longer fiction and critical reception can be found here:

  • Herman, Peter G., "Michael Brodsky", World Authors, 1995-2000 Ed. Clifford Thompson and Mari Rich. New York: H. W. Wilson Company (2003). pp 113–115.
  • Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, vol 147 (2006) pp 56–8.

Brief summaries of his shorter fiction, critical reception, and quotations from Brodsky on his own fiction, can be found here:

  • Hawley, John C., "Michael Brodsky (2 August 1948-)", American Short-Story Writers Since World War II, Fourth Series. Ed. Patrick Meanor and Joseph McNicholas. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 244. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. pp 34–39. Online here.

References

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CANRS refers to Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, and DLB refers to Dictionary of Literary Biography. Full citations are above.

  1. ^ This is taken from World Authors, 1995-2000, CANRS 147, DLB 244. Brodsky's first two books give his birth year as 1951, later books give 1948.
  2. ^ See also CANRS 147 and DLB 244, cited above.
  3. ^ a b Detour, author information
  4. ^ 11/28/1976, as given in DLB 244 and CANRS 147
  5. ^ all other information, these two paragraphs, is from World Authors 1995-2000 or DLB 244 or CANRS 147
  6. ^ CANRS 147, and Zeek magazine.
  7. ^ Hafftka was the illustrator (cover and some internal) for Brodsky's early fiction, and later for Limit Point.