Jedediah Berry

Jedediah Berry (born 1977) is an American writer. He is the author of a novel, The Manual of Detection (2009).

Jedediah Berry author photo.

Background and education

Berry was born in Randolph, Vermont, and spent his childhood in Catskill, New York. He attended Bard College, and earned a graduate degree from the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has worked as an editor at Small Beer Press.[1]

Work

Berry’s first novel, The Manual of Detection, was published by The Penguin Press in 2009. It won the 2009 Hammett Prize[2] and the 2010 Crawford Award.[3] Set in an unnamed city, the novel follows file clerk Charles Unwin as he attempts to solve a mystery involving a missing detective and a criminal mastermind operating through people’s dreams. Critics have noted that The Manual of Detection combines elements from several genres of fiction, including mystery and fantasy.[4] Writing for The Guardian, Michael Moorcock situated the book within the tradition of steampunk fiction.[5] The New Yorker called it “the kind of mannered fantasy that might result if Wes Anderson were to adapt Kafka.”[6] A reviewer for The Observer compared it to The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, and described it as “imaginative, fantastical, sometimes inexplicable, labyrinthine and ingenious.”[7] An abridged version of the novel, read by Toby Jones, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in January 2013.[8]

Berry’s short stories have appeared in Conjunctions, Chicago Review, Ninth Letter, and other magazines. He has taught at the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and he currently teaches at Bard College.[9]

Notes
  1. "Jedediah Berry: A Stranger Road", Locus, 2010-07-01
  2. Sciandra, Mary Frisque and Lisa. "IACW/NA: Hammett Prize: Past Years". www.crimewritersna.org. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
  3. "Jedediah Berry Wins Crawford Award". Locus Online. 2010-01-26. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
  4. Lo Dico, Joy (2010-06-20), "The Manual of Detection, By Jedediah Berry", The Independent on Sunday
  5. Moorcock, Michael (2009-08-22), "The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry", The Guardian
  6. "Books Briefly Noted", The New Yorker, 2009-03-09
  7. Guttridge, Peter (2009-04-05), "The Manual of Detection", The Observer
  8. "ManualOfDetection". Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  9. "Bard College".
gollark: What? No.
gollark: Which means that the government(s) can read *most* messages, and go "well, you're using [secure encrypted messaging thing], which obviously makes you a terrorist or something".
gollark: It's not possible to actually ban E2E, so I assume the intention is just to backdoor all the popular consumer stuff.
gollark: Any well-designed thing will provide forward secrecy, so they won't have that unless they deliberately log things, which is entirely possible.
gollark: And here. It's quite bad.
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