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Jesse Ball Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Jesse Ball
Photo: Joe Lieske

Jesse Ball

Jesse Ball Biography

Jesse Ball was born in New York in 1978. The author of fourteen books, most recently, the novel How To Set a Fire and Why. His works have been published to acclaim in many parts of the world and translated into more than a dozen languages. He is on the faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, won the 2008 Plimpton Prize, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and has been a fellow of the NEA, Creative Capital, and Guggenheim Foundation.

Jesse Ball's website

This bio was last updated on 07/01/2016. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

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Books by this Author

Books by Jesse Ball at BookBrowse
The Repeat Room jacket Census jacket How to Set a Fire and Why jacket A Cure for Suicide jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Jesse Ball but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Melvin Burgess

    Melvin Burgess

    Melvin Burgess was born 25 April 1954, and is a British writer of children's fiction is best known as the author of Junk - one of the most acclaimed and controversial books for young people ever to have been written. Neither ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    How to Set a Fire and Why

    Try:
    The Hit
    by Melvin Burgess

  • Dana Czapnik

    Dana Czapnik

    Dana Czapnik is a 2018 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Fiction from The New York Foundation for the Arts. In 2017, she was awarded an Emerging Writers Fellowship from the Center for Fiction. Czapnik earned her MFA at Hunter ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    How to Set a Fire and Why

    Try:
    The Falconer
    by Dana Czapnik

We recommend 12 similar authors


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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!
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Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
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