Amanda Stern is a fourth-generation native New Yorker and the author of thirteen books, including the memoir Little Panic (Grand Central), a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick, and the novel The Long Haul (Soft Skull Press). She’s also written eleven books for children under the names A.J. Stern (Frankly, Frannie) and Fiona Rosenbloom (You’re So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah), which Adam Sandler turned into a Netflix movie.
Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Believer, McSweeney’s, Salon, and several anthologies including Women in Clothes and A Velocity of Being. From 2003–2018, she produced the Happy Ending Music and Reading Series, a beloved and influential live series that inspired many of today’s literary events. It ran at Joe’s Pub and Symphony Space and featured over 700 artists.
Amanda has worked in indie film (Good Machine), comedy (with Marc Maron), and music (for David Byrne). She hosted the podcast Bookable, and has moderated or curated for the National Book Awards, the BBC, and the Brooklyn Public Library. She’s held fellowships at MacDowell, Yaddo, and NYFA, and leads storytelling workshops for companies like Cirque du Soleil and Moleskine.
She lives in Brooklyn with her dog Busy, and appears for seven seconds in a Hal Hartley film and fourteen seconds in a Richard Sandler documentary.
Her weekly newsletter distills complex concepts from psychology, philosophy and art, asking questions about How to Live.
