Jessica Anya Blau's Blog
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Apr.01.2013
Gina Frangello is the author of the novel My Sister’s Continent and the story collection Slut Lullabies. She is one of the most bold, fearless, unhindered writers I’ve ever read. After reading the manuscript of My Sister’s Continent, one editor was quoted as having said, “I couldn’t...
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Feb.11.2013
Everything young adult novelist Sean Beaudoin writes is cutting-edge, fast-moving, and fun. If you haven’t read his first three books (Going Nowhere Faster; Fade to Blue; and You Killed Wesley Payne) you’ll probably want to after you devour his newest book, The Infects...
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Dec.01.2012
The incredibly charming and talented Susan McCallum-Smith pulled me in to a blogging tag-team game called The Next Big Thing. Here are the questions she sent:
What is the working title of your book?
The Wonder Bread Summer
Where did you get the idea for this book?
When I was 20-years...
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Oct.11.2012
If you don’t know who Junot Díaz is, you should. His writing stands out as startlingly original in a world that often feels crammed with literary replication. He is the author of Drown; he won the Pulitzer Prize for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; and he is the author of the newly...
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Aug.22.2012
My novel, DRINKING CLOSER TO HOME, is based on events that happened to my family over the course of years. The novel starts when the three grown children return home to their mother who has just suffered a severe heart attack. While they’re waiting for her to live or die, the novel...
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Apr.16.2012
Michael Downs is the award-winning author of House of Good Hope and the newly-released and highly-acclaimed The Greatest Show. His short stories have been widely published and have been listed in Best American Short Stories many times. Michael also writes a blog with his wife (...
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Feb.27.2012
When David asked me to marry him, I said, “Yes, as long as we don’t have a wedding.”
Although I enjoy other people’s weddings (I watched for hours when Kate and Wills married, eagerly awaiting the kiss), I’ve never wanted one myself. To be the designated center of attention is...
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Dec.15.2011
It started when we moved from Michigan to California. I was seven and found friends for the first time (my only pal before this was the 72 year old neighbor who let me play with her sock monkey while we sat on the porch and drank tea). And with friends came an awareness that our house was not...
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Nov.22.2011
The hilarious, award-winning, comedy writer Larry Doyle has a new book out this month. Deliriously Happy is a compilation of short, funny pieces Larry wrote for The New Yorker, Esquire and other magazines. You might know Larry from when he wrote and produced The Simpsons. Or maybe you know him from...
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Sep.01.2011
When I was a kid, I used to sneak into my parents’ room and steal whatever book was on the nightstand on my mom’s side of the bed. I tried Anaïs Nin, I tried The Bell Jar, I even tried The Happy Hooker and, alas, none of them could hold my attention. And then one day I found Erica Jong’s Fear of...
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Aug.09.2011
"Where's your sister?" Ava, my ex-husband, Scott's, three-old said to me yesterday. Her mother, Liz, is the same age as I, but I had kids quite young and Liz had them later, leaving me with a nineteen-year-old from the same man with whom she has a three-year-old and a five-year-old....
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Aug.03.2011
Ellen Sussman's fourth book, FRENCH LESSONS, just came out to rave reviews. People magazine gave it four out of four stars, a ¾ page layout, and the title of People Pick. You may already know Ellen from her first novel, On a Night Like This. Or perhaps you've picked up the two anthologies she's...
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Jul.16.2011
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My mother was the one who sent me Donald Ray Pollock's first book, KNOCKEMSTIFF. She had heard him on NPR, called me that day and told me about the interview. Then she read the book and it was all over for her, true love. It's sort of like my daughter with Justin Bieber. KNOCKEMSTIFF is a...
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Jul.11.2011
In Sixth Grade my best friend Julie T. was obsessed with the movie Funny Girl. She played the record every day after school and sang along while staring at Barbra Streisand's glowing face on the album cover.
"You look exactly like her!" Julie once said.
"How do I look...
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Jun.07.2011
It smelled like men. And maybe that was because there were over thirty of them and only three women. One woman was teaching naked yoga and as far as I could see (I dipped my head in to glance at the class), all the followers were men.
The problem was it took place in a gym, and gyms are sort of...
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About Jessica
BIO (WITH DOGS)
Jessica was born in Boston. Her father was a graduate student and her mother was staying home with Jessica and her older sister, Becca. They had a dog named Growlie. Jessica doesn't remember Growlie. They also had a...
Causes Jessica Blau Supports
Baltimore School for the Arts, 826DC, CityLit Project.