Amy Bloom

Amy Beth Bloom was born in 1953, the daughter of author Murray Teigh Bloom and psychotherapist Sydelle J. Cohen. She pursued her education at Wesleyan University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater/Political Science, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Later, she obtained a Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) from Smith College. Trained as a social worker, she practiced psychotherapy before transitioning into academia and writing. Her early career involved writing articles for various reputable periodicals, and her short fiction began appearing in notable anthologies, marking the beginning of her literary recognition. She started her work as a creative writing instructor at Yale University.

Bloom’s literary career gained momentum with multiple award nominations and best-selling works. She was nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction in 1993 for her collection “Come to Me: Stories” and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2000 for “A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You.” In 2007, she leveraged her psychotherapy background to create, co-executive produce, and head write the Lifetime Television series “State of Mind,” which explored the professional lives of psychotherapists. In 2010, she accepted a position as the Kim-Frank Family University Writer in Residence at Wesleyan University, where she continues to teach. Her bibliography also includes her first children’s book, “Little Sweet Potato,” published in 2012, and the New York Times best-selling memoir, “In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss.”

Across her career, Bloom has contributed to magazines such as The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, Elle, Slate, and Salon. Her work has been translated into fifteen languages, and her non-fiction book “Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Cross-dressing Cops, and Hermaphrodites with Attitudes” remains a resource in university sociology and biology courses. She continues to be an active voice in contemporary literature and academia.