Blake Nelson
Blake Nelson [1] is an American author of adult and children's literature.[2][3] He grew up in Portland, Oregon, and attended Wesleyan University and New York University.[4] He lives in Hillsboro, Oregon, in the Portland metropolitan area.[5]
Blake Nelson | |
---|---|
Born | Portland, Oregon | August 31, 1965
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Wesleyan University New York University Jesuit High School (Portland) |
Notable works | Girl Paranoid Park Recovery Road |
Biography
Nelson began his career writing short humor pieces for Details magazine in the mid-'90s. These articles, with titles including "How to be an Expatriot" and "How to Live on $3600 a year", explored the slacker West Coast lifestyle.[4]
His first novel Girl was excerpted in Sassy magazine in three successive issues.[6] The mail Sassy received in response was key to the eventual publication of Girl.[7] Girl has since been published in eight foreign countries and made into a film of the same name. The novel was reissued as a young adult novel by Simon & Schuster young adult imprint Simon Pulse in October 2007.
Nelson's novel Paranoid Park[8] was made into a film of the same name by Gus Van Sant. The novel, about skateboarding teenagers, won the prestigious Grinzane Cavour Prize in Italy.[9] The film won a special 60th Anniversary prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007.
A sequel to his first novel Girl, Dream School was released in December 2011 and follows the protagonist, Andrea Marr, to Wellington College, an eastern liberal-arts college modeled on Wesleyan, Nelson's alma mater.[10] The Seattle Stranger called the Girl/Dream School series "The missing link between Bret Easton Ellis and Tao Lin."
Nelson's 2011 novel Recovery Road was adapted by Disney into a TV drama of the same name. It premiered in January 2016 on ABC Family (Freeform).
Blake Nelson has also contributed poetry, essays and non-fiction to The New York Times, The Quarterly (Gordon Lish), The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Post and Conde Naste Traveler.
Bibliography
- Girl, Simon & Schuster, 1994, (reissue 2007,2016)
- Exile, Scribners, 1997
- User, Versus Press, 2001
- The New Rules of High School, Penguin, 2003
- Rock Star Superstar, Penguin, 2005
- Prom Anonymous, Penguin, 2006
- Gender Blender, Random House, 2006
- Paranoid Park, Penguin, 2006
- They Came From Below, Tor Books, 2007
- Destroy All Cars, Scholastic Books, 2009
- Recovery Road, Scholastic Books, 2011
- Dream School (GIRL #2), Figment, 2011
- The Prince of Venice Beach, Little Brown, 2014
- The City Wants You Alone (GIRL #3), Amazon Kindle, 2015
- Boy, Simon & Schuster, 2017
- Phoebe Will Destroy You, Simon & Schuster, 2018
References
- Blake Nelson - IMDb
- "Children's Literature Profile". Childrenslit.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-19. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
- "Interviews:Violence, and Silence, in Nelson's Paranoid Park". NPR: Fresh Air. 2008-03-27. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
- "Blake Nelson Teen Novelist: Bio". Blakenelsonteennovelist.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
- "Portland Film Festival 2014 Schedule: Blake Nelson". Sched. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
- Mynx, Maradoll (2010-03-04). "About a Boy: Blake Nelson, Author of "Girl". Bust.com. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
- "Girl: Blake Nelson". The-write-stuff.com.au. Archived from the original on 2012-03-17. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
- "Back in Portland, the Latest Outsider Has a Skateboard - Question". nytimes.com. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
- "Google Translate". Retrieved 2012-03-23.
- The Stuff That 'Dream School' Is Made Of, New York Times' review. Second and third paragraphs. By Naomi Fry. 6 December 2011. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
External links
- Official website
- Blake Nelson at IMDb
- Girl at IMDb
- Paranoid Park at IMDb
- Recovery Road at Internet Movie Data Base
- rookiemag.com interview
- xojane.com interview
- Dream School review, at nytimes.com
- NPR: Fresh Air interview
- Hairpin Interview
- Teenage Film Interview
- Sadie Magazine Interview