Tama Janowitz

Tama Janowitz
Born	United States
Occupation	Writer
Education	Barnard College (BA) Hollins College (MA) Columbia University School of the Arts (MFA)
Genre	Fiction

Tama Janowitz is an American novelist and a short story writer. She is especially known for her novel-in-stories Slaves of New York (1986), which was adapted into the movie of the same name by Merchant Ivory in 1989. She is often referenced as one of the main "brat pack" authors, along with Bret Easton Ellis and Jay McInerney. ^[1]

Early life and education

Tama Janowitz' father was a literature professor at Cornell University, and her parents divorced when she was ten. She and her brother David grew up with her mother in Massachusetts, ^[2] and, for two years in the late 1960s, in Israel. ^[3]

Janowitz graduated from Barnard College with a B.A. in 1977 and from Hollins College with an M.A. in 1979.^{[ citation needed ]}

In 1985 she received an M.F.A. from the Columbia University School of the Arts.^{[ citation needed ]}

Career

Upon settling in New York City, Janowitz started writing about life there, becoming well known in Manhattan literary and social circles. ^[4] She began socializing with pop artist Andy Warhol through her relationship with artist Ronnie Cutrone. ^{[5] [6]}

Janowitz's collection of short stories, Slaves of New York , brought her wider fame in 1986. ^{[4] [7]} Publishers Weekly described the book as seven stories featuring a woman named Eleanor, "a diffident young woman who gains entree to the arty milieu of lower Manhattan, which seems to combine elements of Oz and Never-Never-Land with Dante's Inferno." ^[8] Warhol mentioned in his diary that the characters Eleanor and Stash in the stories are based on Janowitz and Cutrone. ^[9] The book was adapted into the 1989 film Slaves of New York , which was directed by James Ivory and starring Bernadette Peters. Janowitz wrote the screenplay and also appeared, playing Peters' friend.^{[ citation needed ]}

Janowitz is often referenced as one of the main "brat pack" authors, along with Bret Easton Ellis and Jay McInerney. ^[1]

Her memoir, Scream: A Memoir of Glamour and Dysfunction, was published in August 2016 to mixed reviews. In The New York Times Book Review , Ada Calhoun noted Janowitz's deadpan, almost careless way of looking at her own life and the glamor of hanging out with Andy Warhol and dancing at Studio 54. The review also addressed the concern with material goods and financial security that drives many of Janowitz's novels and led her to appear in ads for Amaretto and other products, writing that it "shows that she comes by her obsession with money honestly." ^[10]

Personal life

Janowitz left Manhattan to live in Brooklyn with her British husband and art-gallery owner, Tim Hunt (younger brother of 1976 Formula One World Champion James Hunt) ^{[11] [12] [13]} and their daughter. ^{[14] [ when? ]} In 2013 she was living near Ithaca, New York. ^[15]

Awards

• 1975: Bread Loaf Writers fellowship
• 1976; 1977: Janoway Fiction prize
• 1982: National Endowment Award

Publications

Fiction

• American Dad, Crown, 1981, ISBN   978-0-517-56573-5; Picador, 1988, ISBN   9780330302678
• Slaves of New York , Crown Publishers, 1986, ISBN   978-0-517-56107-2
• Five, (with Constance DeJong, Richard Prince, Joe Gibbons, and Leslie Thornton), New York: Top Stories, 1986, ISBN   978-0917061233
• A Cannibal in Manhattan, Washington Square Press, July 1988, ISBN   978-0-671-66598-2
• The Male Cross-Dresser Support Group, Crown Publishers, 1992, ISBN   978-0-517-58698-3; Simon and Schuster, 1994, ISBN   978-0-671-87150-5
• By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee Crown Publishers, 1996, ISBN   978-0-517-70298-7
• A Certain Age, Doubleday, 1999; Anchor Books, 2000, ISBN   978-0-385-49611-7
• Hear that?, Illustrator Tracy Dockray, SeaStar Books, 2001, ISBN   978-1-58717-074-4
• Peyton Amberg, Bloomsbury, 2003, ISBN   978-0-7475-6138-5; Macmillan, 2004, ISBN   978-0-312-31845-1
• They Is Us, The Friday Project Limited, 2008, ISBN   9781906321123

Nonfiction

• Janowitz, Tama (November 12, 2007). "The Real Thing". The New York Times.
• Area Code 212, Bloomsbury, 2002, ISBN   978-0-7475-5828-6; Macmillan, 2005, ISBN   978-0-312-32063-8
• Scream: A Memoir of Glamour and Dysfunction; Dey Street Books, August 9, 2016 ( ISBN   978-0062391322) ^[16]

References

1. Wyatt, Edward (August 7, 2005). "Bret Easton Ellis: The Man in the Mirror". New York Times.
2. "She'll Take Manhattan", New York Magazine, July 14, 1986
3. Fulton, Alice. "Phyllis Janowitz" (PDF). blogs.cornell.edu. Cornell University. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
4. "Penguin Random House". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved January 20, 2019.
5. Warhol, Andy; Hackett, Pat (1989). The Andy Warhol Diaries. New York: Warner Books. p. 627. ISBN   978-0-446-51426-2Entry date: January 12, 1985
6. Trebay, Guy (August 2, 2013). "Ronnie Cutrone, a Man of Another, Cooler City". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved May 15, 2024.
7. "Current Biography Yearbook" is about the 1989 year, Tama Janowitz's biography is on page 278.
8. "Fiction Book Review: Slaves of New York by Tama Janowitz, Author Washington Square Press $6.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-671-63678-4". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
9. Warhol, Andy; Hackett, Pat (1989). The Andy Warhol diaries. New York: Warner Books. p. 685. ISBN   978-0-446-51426-2Entry date: October 15, 1985
10. Calhoun, Ada (August 19, 2016). "Tama Janowitz Grows Up". The New York Times. Retrieved January 20, 2019– via NYTimes.com.
12. Hunt, Timothy. "Timothy Hunt". linkedln.com. Linkedin. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
13. "Tama Janowitz, Writer, Slaves of New York & Tim Hunt, Andy Warhol Foundation". vimeo.com. Vimeo, Inc. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
14. Grigoriadis, Vanessa (August 9, 1999). "Tama Janowitz, Unchained". Nymag.com. Retrieved August 7, 2010.
15. Batya Ungar-Sargon (October 10, 2013). "Something Really Bad Is Always Happening to Former Literary 'It Girl' Tama Janowitz". Tablet Magazine.
16. "Scream - Tama Janowitz - E-book". HarperCollins Publishers: World-Leading Book Publisher. Retrieved January 20, 2019.

External links

• "My Lunch with Tama", Random House Bold Type, 08 1999, Laura L. Buchwald
• "She'll Take Manhattan", New York Magazine, July 14, 1986
• Audio Interview with Tama Janowitz
• "My Little Pony: A Memoir by Tama Janowitz
• Tama Janowitz at IMDb