Thomas Beller

Thomas Beller is a regular contributor to the New Yorker and The New York Times. His most recent book, "Lost in the Game: A Book About Basketball," was widely praised ("An illuminating and unexpectedly poignant collection of essays," the Los Angeles Times; "This is a love song to basketball and its players. At turns fascinating and funny, tenderness beats at the heart of this book..." Jesmyn Ward). His previous book, "J.D. Salinger: The Escape Artist," won the New York City Book Award for Biographer/Memoir. Writing in the New York Times Book Review, Cathleen Schine called the book "sensitive and irresistible," "lyrical and precise," and concluded, "'J. D. Salinger' is the story of the resonance of its subject, but it is also the story of a generous, humorous, sensitive writer, which is to say, Thomas Beller. Not much escapes him." Beller's previous books are a collection of stories, "Seduction Theory," a novel, "The Sleep-Over Artist," and a collection of essays, "How to Be a Man: Scenes from a Protracted Boyhood." In addition to his writing, Beller has edited several anthologies, including those drawn from his website, Mr. Beller's Neighborhood, and the literary magazine he co-founded and edited from 1990-2010, Open City Magazine and Books, where he published a diverse array of authors including Said Sayrafiezadeh, Mary Gaitskill, Meghan Daum, Sam Lipsyte, Martha McPhee, David Foster Wallace, and Edward St. Aubyn, among many others. He is the director of creative writing at Tulane University and lives in New Orleans and New York City with his wife and two children.