Contributor

Erica Jong

Award winning novelist and poet

Erica Jong is the author of eight novels including Fear of Flying; Fanny, Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones; Shylock's Daughter (formerly titled Serenissima); Inventing Memory, a story of mothers and daughters, and many others. Several of her novels have been worldwide bestsellers. Her other books include the nonfiction works Fear of Fifty: A Midlife Memoir; The Devil at Large, a study of Henry Miller; Witches; and What Do Women Want, and volumes of poetry. Her next book will apear in June 2011. It is called SUGAR IN MY BOWL: REAL WOMEN WRITE ABOUT REAL SEX.



Her latest book of poetry appeared earlier this year and is entitled Love Comes First. The book is a collection of poems Erica has written over the past 10 years. Literary critic, essayist and novelist, Daphne Merkin, said, “The collection as a whole shows a ripened, generous, and wise spirit, less consumed with eros and more cognizant of death’s shadow. These are poems that speak directly to the reader, without artifices (contrivance) but with an unshowy artfulness that leads one in, unresistingly. More pensive than celebratory, Jong speaks about serious things—loss and death and aloneness—with a kind of casual lyricism that belies what is at stake.”



In 1998, Erica was honored with the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature. In addition, she has received Poetry magazine's Bess Hokin Prize for her poetry and the Deauville Award for Literary Excellence in France. In Italy, she received the Sigmund Freud Award for Literature in 1975. In June 2009, Erica won the first Fernanda Pivano Prize for Literature in Italy. The prize is named for the writer/critic/translator who introduced American Literature to Italy.



Columbia University has acquired her literary archive and celebrated her work as "classic" in a literary conference this year.

For more information on Erica Jong, please check out her website -- www.ericajong.com.

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