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Ben Greenman

 

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Ben Greenman



 
 
Ben Greenman (born 1969) is an American writer and magazine editor.

Greenman was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Miami, Florida. He attended Miami Palmetto High School
Miami Palmetto High School

Miami Palmetto Senior High School is a secondary school located at 7460 S.W. 118th Street in Pinecrest, Florida, Florida, USA; its principal is Howard Weiner....
 and then Yale University
Yale University

Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School, Yale is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher education in the United States and is a member of the Ivy League....
 where he worked on the Yale Herald. After Yale, he worked as a film critic at New Times newspaper in Miami and then moved to New York City to work as a freelance writer and editor. His journalism has appeared in such magazines as Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a United States-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J....
, Mother Jones
Mother Jones (magazine)

Mother Jones is an small press, nonprofit magazine rooted in liberalism and Progressivism political values. It is widely known for its investigative reporting....
, Time Out New York, and other publications.






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Ben Greenman (born 1969) is an American writer and magazine editor.

Greenman was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Miami, Florida. He attended Miami Palmetto High School
Miami Palmetto High School

Miami Palmetto Senior High School is a secondary school located at 7460 S.W. 118th Street in Pinecrest, Florida, Florida, USA; its principal is Howard Weiner....
 and then Yale University
Yale University

Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School, Yale is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher education in the United States and is a member of the Ivy League....
 where he worked on the Yale Herald. After Yale, he worked as a film critic at New Times newspaper in Miami and then moved to New York City to work as a freelance writer and editor. His journalism has appeared in such magazines as Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a United States-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J....
, Mother Jones
Mother Jones (magazine)

Mother Jones is an small press, nonprofit magazine rooted in liberalism and Progressivism political values. It is widely known for its investigative reporting....
, Time Out New York, and other publications. In 2000, he joined the staff of the The New Yorker
The New Yorker

The New Yorker is an United States magazine that publishes reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Starting as a weekly in the mid-1920s, the magazine is now published 47 times per year, with five of these issues covering two-week spans....
 magazine, where he edits the Goings On About Town Section.

Greenman's first book of fiction, Superbad, was published by McSweeneys Press in 2001. The book is a collection of stories, most humorous, dealing with such issues as creativity, originality, and pop culture while also experimenting with fictional forms. Superworse, published by SoftSkull Press in 2004, reworked some of the material from Superbad but added a more novelistic structure to the book. His short fiction has appeared in such publications as Zoetrope All Story, the Paris Review
Paris Review

The Paris Review is an English-language literary magazine based in New York City. As its name suggests it was founded in Paris in 1953, for "the good writers and good poets, the non-drumbeaters and non-axe grinders....
, and Opium Magazine
Opium Magazine

Opium is a journal of literary humor. Founded by Todd Zuniga, Opium Magazine first appeared online in 2001 and in print in 2005. Opium Magazine features many notable writers and artists including Etgar Keret, Aimee Bender, Jack Handey, Tao Lin, and Art Spiegelman....
. His third book, titled A Circle Is A Balloon and Compass Both, was published in the spring of 2007.

In addition to his books, Greenman has penned a series of musicals that reflect on current-events happenings of the day (one recent example, If I Did It! The Musical, responds to the news that O.J. Simpson planned to publish a book speculating on the murder of his ex-wife Nicole, and others retell the stories of the racehorse Barbaro
Barbaro

Barbaro was an American thoroughbred that decisively won the 2006 Kentucky Derby, but shattered his leg two weeks later in the 2006 Preakness Stakes ending his racing career and eventually leading to his death....
, the feud between Donald Trump
Donald Trump

Donald John Trump is an United States business magnate, socialite, television personality, and author. He is the Chairman and CEO of the Trump Organization, a US-based real-estate developer....
 and Rosie O'Donnell
Rosie O'Donnell

Roseann "Rosie" O'Donnell is an American television host, stand-up comedian, actress, singer and author. She has also been a magazine editor and continues to be a celebrity blogger, LGBT social movements activist, television producer and collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family Vacations....
, and the troubles surrounding Britney Spears
Britney Spears

'Britney Jean Spears' is a Grammy Awards-winning American pop music singer, dancer, actress, and glamour model.Raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Louisiana, Spears first appeared on national television in 1992 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The New Mickey Mouse Club#199...
). He has also invented the Conceptual Art Registry (in which he generates hundreds of ideas for conceptual art shows and then licenses them to young artists) and authored a series of epistolary stories that challenge the validity of commentary by the conservative talk-show host Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity

Sean Patrick Hannity is an American radio personality and television host, author, and Conservatism in the United States political commentator....
. As a collaborative artist, he has worked with the band One Ring Zero
One Ring Zero

One Ring Zero is a modern music group that melds many genres and sounds to create a unique type of music and is based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn....
 on their author project, with the poet Mary Anfinsen, with the singer/songwriter Boyce Day, and others.

At the 2007 The New Yorker
The New Yorker

The New Yorker is an United States magazine that publishes reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Starting as a weekly in the mid-1920s, the magazine is now published 47 times per year, with five of these issues covering two-week spans....
 Festival, Greenman moderated a panel discussion on superheroes in popular culture with Tim Kring
Tim Kring

Richard Timothy "Tim" Kring is an United States screenwriter and television producer. He was born in El Dorado County, California, California, United States....
, the creator of the NBC series Heroes
Heroes (TV series)

Heroes is an American science fiction dramatic programming created by Tim Kring, which premiered on NBC on September 25, 2006. The series tells the stories of ordinary individuals from around the world who inexplicably develop Superpower , and their roles in preventing disasters, usually foreseen in images produced by precognitive painter...
; the comic-book artist and writer Mike Mignola
Mike Mignola

Mike Joseph Mignola is an United States comic book artist and writer, famous for creating the comic book series Hellboy for Dark Horse Comics....
; the comic-book writer Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison is a Scotland comic book writer and artist. He is best-known for his nonlinear narratives and counterculture leanings....
; and the novelist Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Allen Lethem is an American writer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, New York, Lethem trained to be an artist before moving to California and devoting his time to writing....
. He also conducted an onstage interview and performance with the indie rock trio Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo is an United States indie rock band based in Hoboken, New Jersey, New Jersey. With more than 15 albums released since their formation in 1984, they have demonstrated unusual longevity for the indie-rock scene....
. At the 2008 festival he interviewed the horror-movie directors Wes Craven
Wes Craven

Wesley Earl Craven is an United States film director and screenwriter, perhaps best known as the creator of many horror films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street series featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character and as the director of the Scream ....
 and Hideo Nakata
Hideo Nakata

Hideo Nakata is a Japanese film director....
.

At the 2007 edition of Litquake, the San Francisco literary festival, Greenman moderated an onstage event, the Literary Death Match
Literary Death Match

Literary Death Match is a competitive, humor-centric reading series hosted by Opium Magazine.The Literary Death Match was co-created in 2006 by Todd Zuniga, Elizabeth Koch & Dennis DiClaudio....
, for Opium magazine; participants included the novelist Wesley Stace and the eventual winner, the author Daniel Handler
Daniel Handler

Daniel Handler is an American writer, screenwriter and accordionist. He is best known for his work under the pen name Lemony Snicket....
.

In 2008 Hotel St. George press released a handmade and letterpressed edition of his book, Correspondences. The book, made by a letterpress studio called Blue Barnhouse, features an intricate book casing that unfolds to reveal three accordion books and a postcard which allows the reader to contribute to the story; the casing has part of the story on it as well. The first printing of the book is a limited edition; the project has already been reviewed (favorably) by the and . Stories from or connected to Correspondences have appeared or will appear in McSweeneys, OneStory, and the L Magazine.

In spring 2009, Greenman will publish a novel entitled Please Step Back with Melville House. It is rumored to include a collaboration with the soul singer Swamp Dogg
Swamp Dogg

Jerry Williams, Jr., , is a soul music artist who is better known by his pseudonym Swamp Dogg.Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, Williams made his first recording in 1954 under the moniker "Little Jerry", a 78 rpm single on the Mechanic label titled "HTD Blues" / "Nats Wailing"....
.

Greenman maintains his own website, , which formerly purported to be a community bank but does not any longer.

Books

--Please Step Back (2009)
--Correspondences (2008) -- Includes the Postcard Project.
--A Circle is a Balloon and Compass Both (2007)
--Superworse (2004)
--Superbad (2001)


Anthologies

--Rock and Roll Cage Match
--Mirth of a Nation (2000)
--More Mirth of a Nation (2002)
--101 Damnations (2002)
--Politically Inspired (2003)
--May Contain Nuts (2005)
--The Encyclopedia of Exes: 26 Stories by Men of Love Gone Wrong (2005)
--Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans (2005)
--Stumbling and Raging: More Politically Inspired (2006)