Mitch Berman

Writer of fiction and nonfiction, educator, photographer, multimedia author

 

email:  mber@caa.columbia.edu

 

 

 

PUBLICATIONS

Novels · Short Fiction · Articles & Reviews · Multimedia · Photos · Education · Awards, Honors, Appearances

 

 

NOVELS:

 

Cloth, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1987

Illustration:  Bryn Barnard

 

Paper, Ballantine Books, 1988

 

Time Capsule, Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Hemingway Award nominee, 1988, by Putnam’s

A New York Times New and Noteworthy Book

High-intensity jazz for the very sharpest of readers.

                   —Kurt Vonnegut

A gifted writer willing to take on the  most terrifying theme of our century and wrestle it to the ground.                 Russell Banks

 

Seduces the reader. Mitch Berman’s prose is risky and phonic.

                    —New York Times

 Brilliant, funny, and inventive. A science-fictional Huckleberry Finn. There’s abso­lute­ly nothing like it.      —Ishmael Reed

 

A true tour-de-force.

                    —Gail Godwin

A coura­geous, auda­­cious gesture  ... A brave and heartening book.

              —Carolyn See, Los Angeles Times

 

Authors and critics on Time Capsule

 

Time Capsule is also discussed in these books

 

Concrete, the classic comic by Paul Chadwick, shows the hardcover illustration of Time Capsule by Bryn Barnard. Click for larger image

 

 

    The Red Shoes

           A Novel

             

 

The Red Shoes, in progress. A reversal of the Hans Christian Andersen story (and the classic film) in which the shoes are not ballet slippers but size-24 basketball sneakers, and the protagonist is not a ballet dancer but a young black 7-foot NBA player, not an innocent victim of fate but a complex Faustian antihero who, tempted by fame, makes all the wrong choices. Herein the tale of his rapid rise, sudden fall, and final redemption only when success is no longer possible. Synopsis here.

 

NOVELLA:

Immoral Woman, The Gettysburg Review, Winter 1991 (published in different form as "Interview with an Angel") 

     

Actress Ruan Lingyu, the subject of Immoral Woman

 

ANTHOLOGIES:

 

McSweeney's / Litquake 2011 Barbary Coast Award to Ishmael Reed, McSweeney's, October 2011 [original essay]

Pow Wow:  American Short Fiction from Then to Now, Da Capo Press (an imprint of Perseus Press), Ishmael Reed and Carla Blank, editors, 2009 [“The Poorest Boy in Chicago,” a story]

Reviews for Pow Wow

Read the story “The Poorest Boy in Chicago”

 

Sensory Impact, a chapbook, with ZZ Packer and Elmaz Abinader, June 2007

 

Sudden Fiction (Continued), a collection of short-short stories, Robert Shapard and James Thomas, editors, W.W. Norton, 1996 (cloth and paper) [“To Be Horst,” a story]

Read the story “To Be Horst”

 

   

The Male Body, a collection of stories, essays and poems, Laurence Goldstein, editor, U. Michigan Press, 1994 (cloth) and 1995 (paper) [To Be Horst,” a story]

Read the story “To Be Horst”

 

 

Voices of the Xiled, an anthology of fiction by young writers, Doubleday, 1994 [Wabi,” a story]

Read the story “Wabi”

 

 

 

BOOK EDITED:

 

Children of the Dragon: The Story of Tiananmen Square, a collection of eyewitness accounts of and historical essays about the 1989 Chinese student movement, Collier/Macmillan, 1990 (cloth and paper) [co-editor]

 

 

MULTIMEDIA PROJECTS

listed here

 

SELECTED SHORT FICTION:

 

 

 

 

To These Guys,” Some Kind of Opening, No. 6, 2021; reprinted from Witness

This photo-booth shot, circa 1977, is the only picture I have of the real-life basis for the main character of “To These Guys,” my long-gone friend Dianna Lopez San Diego Gonzalez (shown with her husband Greg Gonzalez)

To Be Horst,” Flash Fiction Online, November 2018; reprinted from Michigan Quarterly Review Also selected for Flash Fiction Online 2018 Anthology.

 

"Sand," So It Goes:  The Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, Vol. 3, 2014

 

 

“Billy Moscow and Me,” Descant, Vol. 139, Winter 2008

 

 

The Death of Nu-Nu,” TriQuarterly, Fall 2000

 

Selected as one of the Distinguished Short Stories of 2000 in Best American Short Stories 2001, Barbara Kingsolver, ed., Katrina Kenison, series ed.

 

Twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, 2001

 

 

A Walk in the Park,” Southwest Review, Fall 1999

 

 

A Story of Many Titles,” Agni, Spring 1995; reprinted in Temenos, 2001

 

 

To These Guys,” Witness, November 1994

 

Selected for Special Mention in The Pushcart Prize XX:  1996, Bill Henderson, series ed.

Pushcart Prize nominee, 1996

 

The Board,” Confrontation, Fall 1994

 

Voice-Over for the Documentary Scenes from the Films of Konkowsky as Recalled by the Executor of his  Estate,” Boulevard, Fall 1994

 

Pushcart Prize nominee, 1996

[Both this story and “To These Guys” were nominated that year]

 

 

 

 

 

The Urbane,” Brooklyn Review, Summer 1994

 

 

 

Wabi,” Chicago Review, Fall 1993

 

 

Pushcart Prize nominee, 1994-95

 

 

 

To Be Horst,” Michigan Quarterly Review, Fall 1993 

 

The Making of The Making of the Illusion of Gravity,” Boulevard, Summer 1993

 

 

 

The Day My Fingers Stopped,” Antioch Review, Fall 1992

 

 

 

 

The Poorest Boy in Chicago,” Southwest Review, Fall 1992

 

Selected for Special Mention in The Pushcart Prize XVIII:  1993-1994, Bill Henderson, series ed.

Pushcart Prize nominee, 1993-4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Malmö,” Boulevard, Spring 1992 [Pushcart Prize nominee, 1993]

Pushcart Prize nominee, 1993-4

[Both this story and “The Poorest Boy in Chicago” were nominated that year]

 

 

The Red Planets Lean Machine [not authors title], Omni, July 1990

 

A Thousand Steps,” DV-8 magazine, 1988

 

 

Time Capsule,” extract from the novel, Agni Review, 1986

 

 

 

 

SELECTED ARTICLES AND REVIEWS:    [nonfiction cited in these books]     

 

2015-present: About 25 Articles for the popular travel website The Points Guy, which can all be accessed via my author page there.

 

Home Away from Home: A Review of the Park Hyatt New York, from The Points Guy, September 2018

 

Hotel review with photos by the author

 

10 Photos: London

from The Points Guy, March 2016

Photo essay with photographs by

Kofi Lee-Berman and Mitch Berman

 

 

11 Travel Tips

from The Points Guy, January 2016

Essay with photographs by

Kofi Lee-Berman and Mitch Berman

 

 

10 Photos: Havana, Cuba

from The Points Guy, September 2015

Photo essay with photographs by

Kofi Lee-Berman and Mitch Berman

 

 

Now and Then: Beijing Revisited,

from The Points Guy, October 2015

by Mitch Berman and Susanne Lee

 

 

 

 

10 Photos: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

from The Points Guy, August 2015

Photo essay with photographs by

Kofi Lee-Berman and Mitch Berman

 

Essay, McSweeney's / Litquake Barbary Coast Award to Ishmael Reed, McSweeney's, October 2011

 

 

From Be-Bop to Hip-Hop,” profile of jazz drummer Max Roach, Los Angeles Times Magazine, September 15, 1991 (coauthor:  Susanne Lee)

 

Orwells Bells,” eyewitness account of Chinas 1989 student movement, Conjunctions, May 1991 (coauthor:  Susanne Lee)

 

J.P. Morgan Meets Kasparov,” article on chess hustlers in Washington Square Park, Smart magazine, January 1991

 

Enemies: A Chess Story,” profile of world chess champions Kasparov and Karpov, Los Angeles Times Magazine, October 7, 1990 (reprinted, Melbourne Age, January 1991)

 

 

 

 

                             Selected for Notable Sports

                             Writing, Best American Sports

                             Writing 1991

                             David Halberstam, editor,

                             Glenn Stout, series editor

                          

Getting the Story on China,” on 5 books of nonfiction, Mother Jones, July 1990 (coauthor:  Susanne Lee)

 

Is China Still Hopeful? on Mu & Thompsons Crisis at Tiananmen, The Nation, 1990 (coauthor:  Susanne Lee)

 

Very Quiet. Too Quiet,” on Harrison Salisburys Tiananmen Diary, The Nation, October 30, 1989 (coauthor:  Susanne Lee)

 

 

Sweets from Harlan Ellison,” on Ellisons Angry Candy, Los Angeles Times Book Review, 1989

 

Reprinted in Contemporary Literary Criticism, Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 139. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001

 

 

 

Bullets in Beijing,” eyewitness account of the crackdown on the Chinese student movement, cover piece for the Village Voice, June 20, 1989 (coauthor:  Susanne Lee)

 

The Bradbury Chronicles,” on Ray Bradburys The Toynbee Convector, Los Angeles Times Book Review, 1988

 

 

 

MULTIMEDIA PROJECTS:

 

 

 

 

Instant Konkowsky, 2009

 

Wrote, designed and produced for CD-ROM and website an interactive multimedia fiction project including graphics, music, text and 40 minutes of video (produced and directed all video segments with Susanne Lee; programmer for CD-ROM:  Eric Lee)

See the full movie at imdb.comInstant Konkowsky at the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com)

View the stills (left)

 

 

 

 

Founding Editor-in-Chief of Hyper Hyper. The first multimedia magazine to publish on DVD (as well as on CD-ROM and website), Hyper Hyper covered film, music, sculpture, comics, multimedia projects, prose and poetry

Featured artists included winners of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, three MacArthur genius grants, two Grammies, two Taiwan Golden Horses for Best Picture, twelve Hong Kong Film Awards and two Cannes Film Festival Awards

PHOTOS:

 

 

POETRY:

 

 

Invisible Skylines

Photos by Kofi Lee-Berman and Mitch Berman

 

 

Two poems:

“Nightmare with Full Buffet and Nut Scoop”

and

“That Time I was in a Coma for Most of a Weekend and the Entire Month of April,”

in Un Bordado De Voces, 2022 Anthology, C.D. Johnson, editor, Rogue Scholars, 2022

 

 

 

 

 

Haiku, frogpond, Vol. 40:1, The Journal of the Haiku Society of America, 2017

 

 

Two haiku, Modern Haiku, June 1994

BOOKS OF CRITICISM DISCUSSING THE NOVEL TIME CAPSULE:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remainders of the American Century: Post-Apocalyptic Novels in the Age of US Decline, by Brent Ryan Bellamy, Wesleyan University Press, 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

Existential Threats: American Apocalyptic Beliefs in the Technological Era, by Lisa Vox, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz Fiction:  A History and Comprehensive Guide, by David Rife, Scarecow Press, 2008

 

 

 

 

In a Dark Time: The Apocalyptic Temper in the American Novel of the Nuclear Age, by Joseph Dewey, Purdue University Press, 1990

 

 

 

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, by Charles N. Brown and William G. Contento, Locus Publications, 1988

BOOKS OF CRITICISM DISCUSSING NONFICTION:

 

 

 

 

The Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights, and the Ethics of Cocreation, by Daniel Fischlin, Ajay Heble and George Lipsitz, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2013

 

 

 

Call and recall: Hybridity, mobility, and dialogue between jazz and hip hop, Jesse L. MacBurnie Stewart, University of Guelph (Canada), 2008

 

 

A Galaxy Not So Far Away: Writers and Artists on Twenty-five Years of Star Wars, Glenn Kenney, ed., Holt Paperbacks, 2002

 

 

Dangerous Crossroads:  Popular Music, Postmodernism, and the Focus of Place, by George Lipsitz, Haymarket Series (Verso), 1997

 

 

 

 

 

Sounding Off:  Music as Subversion/Resistance/Revolution, by Ron Sakolsky and Fred Wei-Han Ho (editors), Autonomedia, 1996

 

 

Black Noise, by Tricia Rose, Wesleyan University Press, 1994

 

AWARDS, HONORS, APPEARANCES

AWARDS AND HONORS

 

Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Hemingway Award nominations, 1987, for Time Capsule (a novel) [submitted by G.P. Putnams Sons]

 

Finalist in two book categories (novel and story collection), Michigan Literary Fiction Awards (open only to authors of previously published books of literary fiction), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2007

 

Two Pushcart Prize nominations, 2001, for “The Death of Nu-Nu” (a story) 

 

Pushcart Prize Special Mention, 1996, for “To These Guys” (a story), The Pushcart Prize XX:  1996, Bill Henderson, series ed.; Pushcart Prize nomination

 

Pushcart Prize nomination, 1996, for “Voice-Over for the Documentary Scenes from the Films of Konkowsky as Recalled by the Exec­u­tor of his Estate” (a story)

 

Pushcart Prize nomination, 1994, for Wabi (a story)

 

Pushcart Prize Special Mention, 1993-1994, for The Poorest Boy in Chicago (a story), The Pushcart Prize XVIII:  1993-1994, Bill Henderson, series ed.; Pushcart Prize nomination

 

Pushcart Prize nomination, 1993, for Malmö (a story)

 

Selected for Notable Sports Writing, Best American Sports Writing 1991, David Halberstam, ed., Glenn Stout, series ed., for Enemies: A Chess Story,” Los Angeles Times Magazine, October 7, 1990

 

West Side YMCA Open Voice Award, 1987, New York

 

 

 

APPEARANCES

Selected Readings and Appearances:  Instituto Lenguas Vivas "Juan Ramón Fernández" (Buenos Aires, Argentina); City University of Hong Kong, Kubrick Bookstore, Book Attic, Joyce is Not Here, Fringe Club (all in Hong Kong); Shakespeare and Company (Paris, France); Master of Ceremonies at PEN American Center's Annual New Writers Reading, Bowery Poetry Club, The Living Theatre, West Side YMCA, Biblios, Ceres Gallery, Dixon Place, Featured writer, PEN American Center's Annual New Writers Reading (all in New York City); Elliott Bay (Seattle); Cody’s (Berkeley); George Sand (Los Angeles); California Writers Club, Pomegranate Café, San Jose State University (all in San Jose, California); Mountain View Performing Arts Center (Mountain View, CA); Hungry Mind (Minneapolis); B Dalton (New York); Lincoln Center (Chicago); Kramerbooks (Washington, D.C.)

 

INFLUENCES

 

  

EDUCATION

M.F.A., Columbia University, graduate writing program, June 1991

A.B., University of California at Berkeley, social sciences, June 1979

 

Novels · Short Fiction · Articles & Reviews · Multimedia · Education · Awards, Honors, Appearances