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Jill Bialosky

Biography

Jill Bialosky

Jill Bialosky's newest volume of poetry, ASYLUM: A Personal, Historical, Natural Inquiry in 103 Lyric Sections, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. She is the author of five acclaimed collections of poetry, four critically acclaimed novels --- including THE PRIZE and, most recently, THE DECEPTIONS --- and two memoirs, POETRY WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE and the New York Times bestselling memoir, HISTORY OF A SUICIDE: My Sister’s Unfinished Life.

Her poems and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, O Magazine, The Kenyon Review, Harvard Review, Paris Review and Best American Poetry, among others. She co-edited with Helen Schulman the anthology, WANTING A CHILD. She is an Executive Editor and Vice President at W. W. Norton & Company. In 2014, she was honored by the Poetry Society of America for her distinguished contribution to poetry.

Jill Bialosky

Books by Jill Bialosky

The Deceptions
by Jill Bialosky - Fiction

An unnamed narrator’s life is unraveling. Her only child has left home, and her 20-year marriage is strained. Anticipation about her soon-to-be-released book of poetry looms. She seeks answers to the paradoxes of love, desire and parenthood among the Greek and Roman gods at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As she passes her days teaching at a boys’ prep school, spending her off-hours sequestered in the museum's austere galleries, she is haunted by memories of a yearlong friendship with a colleague, a fellow poet struggling with his craft. As secret betrayals and deceptions come to light and rage threatens to overwhelm her, the pantheon of gods assume remarkably vivid lives of their own, forcing her to choose between reality and myth.

Poetry Will Save Your Life: A Memoir
by Jill Bialosky - Memoir, Nonfiction, Poetry

For Jill Bialosky, certain poems stand out like signposts at pivotal moments in a life: the death of a father, adolescence, first love, leaving home, the suicide of a sister, marriage, the birth of a child, the day in New York City the Twin Towers fell. As Bialosky narrates these moments, she illuminates the ways in which particular poems offered insight, compassion and connection, and shows how poetry can be a blueprint for living. In POETRY WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE, Bialosky recalls when she encountered each formative poem, and how its importance and meaning evolved over time, allowing new insights and perceptions to emerge.

The Prize
by Jill Bialosky - Fiction

With a rising career as a partner at an esteemed gallery, Edward Darby strives not to let ambition, money, power and his dark past corrode the sanctuary of his domestic and private life. But when a celebrated artist controlled by her insecurities betrays him, and another very different artist awakens his heart and stirs up secrets from his past, Edward will find himself unmoored from his marriage, his work and the memory of his beloved father. And when the finalists of an important prize are announced, Edward soon learns that betrayal comes in many forms, and that he may be hurtling toward an act that challenges his own notions about what comprises a life worth living.

History of a Suicide: My Sister's Unfinished Life
by Jill Bialosky - Nonfiction

On April 15, 1990, Jill Bialosky’s 21-year-old sister Kim climbed into a car in the garage, turned on the ignition, and fell asleep. Now, Jill recreates her sister’s inner life, and the events and emotions that led her to take her life on this particular night.

House Under Snow
by Jill Bialosky - Fiction