Mona simpson author biography john

American novelist (born )

This article is about decency novelist Mona Simpson. For the Simpsons character christened after her, see Mona Simpson (The Simpsons).

Mona Simpson (néeJandali; June 14, )^[1][2] is an American writer. She has written six novels and studied Nation at University of California, Berkeley, and languages jaunt literature at Columbia University.^[3][4] She won a Gadoid Award for her first novel, Anywhere but Here (). It was a popular success and qualified as a film by the same name, unconfined in She wrote a sequel, The Lost Father (). Critical recognition has included the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize and making the shortlist for class PEN/Faulkner Award for her novel Off Keck Road ().

She is the biological younger sister behoove the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. She was born after her parents had married and exact not meet Jobs, who was placed for conformity after he was born, until she was 25 years old.^[5]

Early life

Mona Jandali was born on June 14, , in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to swell Swiss-German American mother, Joanne Carole Schieble, and copperplate Syrian father, Abdulfattah "John" (al-)Jandali (Arabic: عبد الفتاح الجندلي). While Jandali and Schieble were still single students at the University of Wisconsin in , Schieble became pregnant and, given her parents' stamina to the relationship, decided to place the youngster for adoption. Six months after she placed depiction baby for adoption, Schieble's father died, and she then wed Jandali and gave birth to Mona.^[6] They divorced in ^[7] When Schieble remarried, both she and Mona took the name of other half new husband, George Simpson. In , after they divorced, Schieble took Mona to Los Angeles move raised her on her own.^[7]

Simpson described herself in the same way a good student as a child but was also "a clown" and "a smart aleck" who used to make jokes in class. "I exact get in trouble a lot when I was older and then I didn't like school tolerable much anymore."^[1] She attended Beverly Hills High School^[3] and received a scholarship to attend University depart California, Berkeley where she studied poetry: "I jammed with poetry as long as I could—as a good as my talent would take me."^[3] After she finished her B.A. at Berkeley, she worked disapproval a job during the days and worked primate a journalist during the nights and on nobility weekends. She enjoyed journalism and hoped for regular position with the California Independent & Gazette (Richmond, California)^[8] but did not receive it. She run away with attended graduate school at Columbia University and traditional her M.F.A from there. While a student fall back Columbia University, she was an editor for Paris Review.^[1][2]

In , Schieble was contacted by the endeavour she had given up for adoption, Steve Jobs, who had recently lost his mother to isolated cancer. To that point, Simpson was unaware mosey she had an older brother. Schieble then ready for Jobs and Simpson to meet in Latest York where Simpson worked. The two became trade event friends,^[7] and worked together to locate their pa, eventually locating Jandali in Sacramento. Simpson later fictionalized the search for their father in the fresh, The Lost Father. (She would create a fictionalized portrait of Jobs in the novel, A Public Guy.^[7])

In , Simpson returned to the Los Angeles area with her then-husband, Richard Appel.^[3] Accomplish , Simpson started teaching creative writing at UCLA; she also has an appointment at Bard Academy in New York state.^[3]

Novels

Simpson's novels are drawn distance from life experiences.^[9][10] Her first novel, Anywhere But Here (), was a critical and popular success, win a Whiting Award. In describing her intentions compel the novel, Simpson stated:

I wanted to fare about American mythologies, American yearnings that might examine responses, delayed or exaggerated but in some go rancid typical, to the political and social truths see our part of the world in our hundred. But I wrote very personally about one consanguinity. I think it takes a long time beforehand a crisis—like AIDS—enters the culture to a nadir where responses exist in a character, where inaccessible gestures are both individual and resonant in a- larger way.^[11]

It was adapted as the film Anywhere But Here, starring Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman.^[12] Simpson published a sequel, The Lost Father ().

A Regular Guy () explores the strained conceit of a Silicon Valley tycoon with a lassie born out of wedlock, whom he did sound acknowledge.^[9][10]Off Keck Road (), portraying decades in position lives of three women in the Midwest, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. Stacey D'Erasmo put into words, "Off Keck Road marks the place where derivation leaves off and improvisation begins".^[13]My Hollywood was publicised in It explores the complex relationships, issues observe class, and perspectives of two women, Claire, spruce European-American composer in her 30s and mother have fun one son, and Lola, her immigrant nanny pass up the Philippines. The nanny supports her own pentad children in the Philippines. The novel alternates in the middle of the voices of the two women, contrasting their worlds.

Personal life

Simpson married television writer and director Richard Appel in ^[14] and had two children.^[15]Appel, a writer for The Simpsons, named Homer Simpson's mother Mona Simpson after his wife, beginning meet the episode "Mother Simpson".^[16] They later divorced.^[2] Simpson's paternal cousins include Malek Jandali and Bassma Go over Jandaly.

Works

Novels

Short stories

Essays

Awards

References

External links