Bloom ’75 Named to New Writer-in-Residence Position

Amy Bloom ’75, a distinguished writer of novels, short stories, nonfiction, and projects for television, has been named the Kim-Frank Family University Writer in Residence at Wesleyan University. Her appointment takes effect July 1.

Bloom will enhance Wesleyan’s curricular offerings in writing by offering two courses per year, and she will serve as a senior thesis advisor. She will have an office in the Shapiro Creative Writing Center.

“Amy Bloom is one of the most accomplished writers in the United States today,” says President Michael S. Roth. “Her insight, her creativity, and her deep understanding of the craft of writing will be a great benefit to our students. The writing community at Wesleyan is prolific and strong, and Amy Bloom’s presence will add to that vitality.”

Bloom is the author of two novels, three collections of short stories, and a nonfiction book. She has been a nominee for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, and numerous anthologies here and abroad.

She has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic, among many other publications, and has won a National Magazine Award. She also was the creator and producer of a 2007 dramatic series (State of Mind, starring Lili Taylor), and is currently working on a project for HBO.

Her most recent, best-selling novel, Away, is an epic story about a Russian immigrant. Her new collection of short stories, Where the God of Love Hangs Out, was published in January and was also a best-seller.

The New York Times review of Where the God of Love Hangs Out said that Bloom “vividly chronicles the inner lives of people caught in emotional and physical constraints — illnesses they are striving to survive, regrets they are trying to allay, desires they often dare not fulfill. She writes in beautifully wrought prose, with spunky humor and a flair for delectably eccentric details.”

The New Yorker said, “Bloom gets more meaning into individual sentences than most authors manage in whole books.”

Bloom has taught at Yale University, in Brooklyn College’s M.F.A. program and at Wesleyan. She lives in Connecticut.

The University Writer in Residence position is made possible through the generosity of Diann H. Kim and John B. Frank ’78, a member of Wesleyan’s Board of Trustees. Kim is a partner with the law firm of Scheper & Kim in Los Angeles. She specializes in civil antitrust and unfair trade practices. Frank is Managing Principal of Oaktree Capital Management. Previously, he was a partner in the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson.