Amanda Stern is an American writer and event organizer. Her literary works, which include fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, have been featured in various publications such as The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Filmmaker, The Believer, Post Road, St. Ann’s Review, Salt Hill, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Five Chapters, and Spinning Jenny. Her first novel The Long Haul (ISBN: 1932360069) was met with positive review.
In 2003, Amanda Stern established The Happy Ending Music and Reading Series in a small Chinatown bar. This series was recognized and praised by numerous outlets, such as The Village Voice, New York magazine, NY Press, and The New Yorker. Time Out New York even named it the “most vital authors’ series in NYC” and “consistently one of the most entertaining literary events in the city”. Stern’s expertise as a host and curator was highlighted in the “New York” issue of The New York Times Magazine in 2006, where she was included in the list of “New Bohemians, helping to keep downtown New York alive”. The Happy Ending Series soon became a popular destination for authors and musicians on tour.
In January 2009, after five years in a small bar, the beloved series relocated to Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, becoming its first recurring literary series. Over 600 artists have been welcomed, such as Laurie Anderson, Aimee Mann, James Salter, Moby, A.M. Homes, Rick Moody, Amy Hempel, Mary Gaitskill, My Brightest Diamond and Mark Eitzel.
Under the pseudonyms A.J. Stern and Fiona Rosenbloom, Amanda Stern has published eleven books for children. Her works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have been featured in several prominent publications, such as The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Filmmaker, The Believer, Post Road, St. Ann’s Review, Salt Hill, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Five Chapters, and Spinning Jenny. Her debut novel, entitled The Long Haul, was released by Soft Skull Press and is now available in bookstores across the country.
Amanda Stern is a writer who blogs about culture and has had various residencies at Yaddo and MacDowell. She resides in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, a place noted for its novelists such as Colson Whitehead, Jennifer Egan and Jhumpa Lahiri. She is currently busy working on her next novel in the same area.