Blake Nelson

Blake Nelson
BornChicago, Illinois
NationalityAmerican
Alma materWesleyan University
New York University
Jesuit High School (Portland)
Notable worksGirl
Paranoid Park
Recovery Road

Blake Nelson is an American author of adult and children's literature.[1][2] He grew up in Portland, Oregon, and attended Wesleyan University and New York University.[3] He lives in Hillsboro, Oregon, in the Portland metropolitan area.[4]

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.[3]

His first novel Girl was excerpted in Sassy magazine in three successive issues.[5] The mail Sassy received in response was key to the eventual publication of Girl.[6] 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[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] 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).

In 2023, Girl Noise Press published The City Wants You Alone, the third novel in the GIRL trilogy.

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 Nast 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
  • Boy, Simon & Schuster, 2017
  • Phoebe Will Destroy You, Simon & Schuster, 2019
  • The City Wants You Alone (GIRL #3) Girl Noise Press 2023

References

  1. ^ "Children's Literature Profile". Childrenslit.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-19. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
  2. ^ "Interviews:Violence, and Silence, in Nelson's Paranoid Park". NPR: Fresh Air. 2008-03-27. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
  3. ^ a b "Blake Nelson Teen Novelist: Bio". Blakenelsonteennovelist.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
  4. ^ "Portland Film Festival 2014 Schedule: Blake Nelson". Sched. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  5. ^ Mynx, Maradoll (2010-03-04). "About a Boy: Blake Nelson, Author of "Girl". Bust.com. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
  6. ^ "Girl: Blake Nelson". The-write-stuff.com.au. Archived from the original on 2012-03-17. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
  7. ^ Nelson, Blake (2 March 2008). "Back in Portland, the Latest Outsider Has a Skateboard - Question". nytimes.com. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
  8. ^ "Google Translate". Retrieved 2012-03-23.
  9. ^ 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.