Joshua Henkin Biography
Joshua Henkin is the author of the novels Matrimony, a New York Times Notable Book, and Swimming Across the Hudson, a Los Angeles Times Notable Book and The World Without You, winner of the 2012 Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish American Fiction and a Finalist for the 2012 National Jewish Book Award. His short stories have been published widely, cited for distinction in Best American Short Stories, and broadcast on NPR's "Selected Shorts." His fourth novel is Morningside Heights (June 2021). He lives in Brooklyn, NY, and directs the MFA program in Fiction Writing at Brooklyn College.
Joshua Henkin's website
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Interview
Joshua Henkin talks about his third and fourth novels, The World Without You and Morningside Heights The first set against the backdrop of Independence Day and the Iraq War and the second which explores the relationship between a wife and her husband diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's.
Morningside Heights
Joshua Henkin is the author of four novels, including
Matrimony and
The World Without You. His fourth novel,
Morningside Heights, explores the relationship between Pru and her husband, Spence, as he is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's.
There are multiple story threads in this novel--was there one that started as the seed?
I wrote over 3,000 pages for
Morningside Heights. That's how I always work: write thousands of pages, throw most of them out and, eventually, I find the heart of the novel.
Morningside Heights started as a very long short story that took place at a class for caregivers at a Jewish community center on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The seed for the book was my mother's experience in a similar class when she was caring for my father. My mother is not the kind of person who gravitates toward such classes--toward adult education in general--and I was interested in what it would be like for someone like her to be thrust into contact with strangers in this way. The first draft of the book began at the JCC. By the 20th draft, the JCC was in the garbage pail, though one character from the class remains.
That's a lot of drafting! Is it safe to assume, then, that you don...
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- Reviews
- "Beyond the Book" articles
- Free books to read and review (US only)
- Find books by time period, setting & theme
- Read-alike suggestions by book and author
- Book club discussions
- and much more!
-
Just $45 for 12 months or
$15 for 3 months.
- More about membership!