André Aciman

{{Short description|Writer and professor (born 1951)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}  {{Infobox writer | image = André Aciman Call Me By Your Name Press Conference Berlinale 2017 (cropped).jpg | alt = | caption = Aciman in 2017 | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1951|1|2|df=y}} | birth_place = Alexandria, Egypt | occupation = {{hlist|Writer|professor}} | education = {{Plainlist| * Lehman College (BA) * Harvard University (MA, PhD) }} | nationality = {{hlist|Italian|American}} | period = 1995–present | genre = Short story, novel, essay, romance | notablework = ''Call Me by Your Name'' (2007) | spouse = Susan Wiviott | children = 3, including Alexander | signature = André Aciman signature.jpg | signature_alt = }}

'''André Aciman''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|s|ɪ|m|ə|n}};<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jArJ9qVgVCYAV&t=15s |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310142112/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jArJ9qVgVCYAV&t=15s |archive-date=2021-03-10 |url-status=dead|title=Fear of Dying: A Conversation with Erica Jong|publisher=CUNY Graduate Center|date=10 November 2015|access-date=26 March 2019}}</ref> born 2 January 1951) is an Italian-American writer. Born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, he is currently a distinguished professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he teaches the history of literary theory and the works of Marcel Proust.<ref name="cuby-new"/><ref name="cuny-bio"/> Aciman previously taught creative writing at New York University and French literature at Princeton University and Bard College.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gc.cuny.edu/Page-Elements/Academics-Research-Centers-Initiatives/Doctoral-Programs/Comparative-Literature/Faculty-Bios/Andre-Aciman|title=André Aciman|website=gc.cuny.edu}}</ref><ref name="marinij2008"/><ref name="kakutani1994"/>

In 2009, he was Visiting Distinguished Writer at Wesleyan University.<ref>{{cite web|last=Rosenberg|first=Gabe|url=http://wesleyanargus.com/2009/03/27/novelist-and-visiting-prof-andre-aciman-shares-his-creative-process|title=Novelist and Visiting Prof. Andre Aciman Shares His Creative Process - Arts|date=27 March 2009 |publisher=The Wesleyan Argus|access-date=4 December 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.google.com/profiles/aciman|title=Andre Aciman profile|date=18 October 2013|access-date=4 December 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/Andre-Aciman/e/B000AQ43NO|title=Andre Aciman: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle|website=Amazon |access-date=4 December 2013}}</ref>

He is the author of several novels, including ''Call Me by Your Name'' (winner of the 2008 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.lambdaliterary.org/winners-finalists/04/30/lambda-literary-awards-2007-2|title=20th Annual Lambda Literary Awards Winners and Finalists|date=30 April 2007 |access-date=1 January 2017}}</ref>), which was made into a film, and the 1995 memoir ''Out of Egypt'', which won a Whiting Award.<ref name="whiting-awards"/> Though best known for ''Call Me by Your Name'',<ref>{{cite news|last1=D'Erasmo|first1=Stacey|title=Call Me by Your Name - By André Aciman - Books - Review|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/books/review/DErasmo.t.html|accessdate=15 August 2016|work=The New York Times|date=25 February 2007}}</ref> Aciman said in a 2019 interview that he views the novel ''Eight White Nights'' as his best book.<ref name="HBL">{{cite news | author=Ingström, Pia | date=26 May 2019 | title=Mor var vild och öm, mormor ett helgon och farmor kall | newspaper=Hufvudstadsbladet | pages=38–39 | url=http://www.hbl.fi/artikel/andre-acimans-mor-var-vild-och-om-mormor-ett-helgon-och-farmor-kall/ | url-access=subscription | language=sv}}</ref>

==Early life and education== {{BLP sources section|date=March 2018}} Aciman was born in Alexandria, Egypt, the son of Regine and Henri N. Aciman, who owned a knitting factory.<ref name="epstein2003"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/aciman|title=Presidential Lectures: André Aciman|last=Baker|first=Zachary M.|date=2009|website=Stanford Presidential Lectures|access-date=5 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04EEDF1E3AF936A25756C0A96E9C8B63|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803094701/https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04EEDF1E3AF936A25756C0A96E9C8B63|archive-date=3 August 2017|title=Deaths: ACIMAN, HENRI N|date=15 May 2008|work=The New York Times|access-date=5 September 2017|issn=0362-4331|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?pid=162296112|title=REGINE ACIMAN: Obituary|date=12 January 2013|work=The New York Times|access-date=5 September 2017|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> His mother was deaf.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/03/17/are-you-listening|title=Are You Listening?|first=André|last=Aciman|date=10 March 2014|magazine=The New Yorker}}</ref> Aciman was raised in a largely French-speaking home, where family members also spoke Italian, Greek, Ladino, and Arabic.<ref name="marinij2008"/>

His parents were Sephardic Jews of Turkish and Italian origin from families that had settled in Alexandria in 1905 (Turkish surname: Acıman).<ref name="kakutani1994"/> Considered part of the Mutamassirun ("foreign") community, his family members were unable to become Egyptian citizens. As a child, Aciman mistakenly believed that he was a French citizen.<ref>{{cite news |title=Aciman, Toibin among contributors to book on Sigmund Freud |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/sigmund-freud-colm-toibin-andre-aciman-new-york-joyce-carol-oates-b2033095.html |work=The Independent |date=10 March 2022 |language=en}}</ref> He attended British schools in Egypt.<ref name="HBL" /> While the family was spared the 1956–57 exodus and expulsions from Egypt, increased tensions with Israel under President Gamal Abdel Nasser put Jews in a precarious position, leading his family to leave Egypt nine years later, in 1965.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2019-10-23/ty-article-magazine/.premium/andre-aciman-on-the-parallels-between-jews-and-gays-and-his-new-novel-find-me/0000017f-e8c4-df2c-a1ff-fed52fbf0000 |title = André Aciman on the Parallels Between Jews and Gays, and His 'Call Me by Your Name' Sequel|newspaper = Haaretz|date = 23 October 2019|last1 = Halutz|first1 = Avshalom}}</ref>

After his father purchased Italian citizenship for the family, Aciman moved with his mother and brother as refugees to Rome while his father moved to Paris. They moved to New York City in 1968.<ref name="marinij2008"/> He earned a B.A. degree in English and Comparative Literature from Lehman College in 1973, and an M.A. and PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard University in 1988.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gradesaver.com/author/andre-aciman |title=Biography of Andre Aciman |publisher=gradesaver |access-date=7 January 2019}}</ref>

==''Out of Egypt''== Aciman's 1996 memoir ''Out of Egypt'', about Alexandria before the 1956 expulsions from Egypt, was reviewed widely.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2019-12-13 |title=Revisiting André Aciman's Eccentric Family |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/books/review/revisiting-andre-acimans-eccentric-family.html |access-date=2022-09-21 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name="washington-post1995" /><ref name="walters1995"/> In ''The New York Times'', Michiko Kakutani described the book as a "remarkable memoir...that leaves the reader with a mesmerizing portrait of a now vanished world." She compared his work with that of Lawrence Durrell and noted, "There are some wonderfully vivid scenes here, as strange and marvelous as something in García Márquez."

==Personal life== Aciman is married to Susan Wiviott. They have three sons, Alexander, a writer and journalist, and twins Philip and Michael.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=henri-n-aciman&pid=109718913|title=Henri Aciman Obituary - New York, New York | The New York Times|website=Legacy.com |access-date=24 November 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.out.com/out-exclusives/2017/12/07/call-me-your-name-author-film-they-all-deserve-oscars|title='Call Me By Your Name' Author on the Film: 'They All Deserve Oscars'|date=7 December 2017|access-date=2 May 2018|website=out.com}}</ref> His wife, a graduate of University of Wisconsin–Madison and Harvard Law School, is the CEO of the Bridge, Inc., a New York City-based nonprofit organization that offers rehabilitative services. She is also a board director of Kadmon Holdings, Inc., and formerly worked as Chief Program Officer of Palladia and Deputy Executive Vice President of JBFCS.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-wiviott-73aa824a/|title=LinkedIn|access-date=24 November 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.thebridgeny.org/leadership/ | title=Leadership}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://quotes.wsj.com/KDMN/company-people/executive-profile/119920163 | title=KDMN Company Profile & Executives - Kadmon Holdings Inc. | work=The Wall Street Journal | access-date=16 September 2018 | archive-date=17 September 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917071357/https://quotes.wsj.com/KDMN/company-people/executive-profile/119920163 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=138360311&privcapId=4585358 | title = Stocks - Bloomberg | website = Bloomberg News | date = 19 June 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.marketscreener.com/KADMON-HOLDINGS-INC-30325867/ | title=KADMON HOLDINGS, INC. : KDMN Stock Price | MarketScreener| date=21 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://inews.co.uk/culture/andre-aciman-interview-call-me-by-your-name-enigma-variations/|title=André Aciman, interview: 'I couldn't imagine writing about people whose sexuality is anything other than fluid'|last=Liu|first=Max|date=2018-11-02|website=inews.co.uk|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-05-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unisob.na.it/inchiostro/index.htm?idrt=8183|title=Chiamami col tuo nome|website=InchiostrOnline|access-date=2019-05-04}}</ref>

==Awards== *1995: Whiting Award *2008: Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction

==Bibliography== {{Library resources box|about=no|by=yes}}{{Incomplete list|date=May 2018}} ===Novels=== *''Call Me by Your Name'' (2007)<ref name="meaney2007" /><ref name="ormsby2007" /><ref name="derasmo2007" /> *''Eight White Nights'' (2010) *''Harvard Square'' (2013) *''Enigma Variations'' (2017) *''Find Me'' (2019)<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bobrow |first1=Emily |title='Find Me' Review: Better Left Unspoken A much-anticipated sequel that dispenses with many of the ingredients that made the earlier book so moving. |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/find-me-review-better-left-unspoken-11572016217?mod=djembooks |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|date=25 October 2019}}</ref> *''The Gentleman from Peru'' (2024) *''Room on the Sea'' (2025)

===Short fiction=== [[File:Luca Guadagnino and André Aciman at the screening of Call Me By Your Name, 2017 Berlin International Film Festival.jpg|Luca Guadagnino and Aciman at a screening of ''Call Me by Your Name'', at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival|thumb|upright]] *"[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1997/11/03/cats-cradle-2 Cat's Cradle]". ''The New Yorker''. November 1997. *{{cite journal |date=Summer 2007 |title=Monsieur Kalashnikov  |journal=The Paris Review|volume=181|url=https://www.theparisreview.org/fiction/5773/monsieur-kalashnikov-andre-aciman}} *{{cite journal |date=January 2013 |title=Abingdon Square |journal=Granta|volume=122 |issue=Betrayal}}

===Non-fiction=== *''Out of Egypt'' (memoir) (1995)<ref name="cuby-new" /><ref name="cuny-bio" /> *''Letters of Transit: Reflections on Exile, Identity, Language, and Loss'' (editor/contributor) (1999) *''False Papers: Essays on Exile and Memory'' (2000)<ref name="cuby-new" /><ref name="cuny-bio" /> *''Entrez: Signs of France'' (with Steven Rothfeld) (2001) *''The Proust Project'' (editor) (2004)<ref name="cuby-new" /><ref name="aciman2004" /> *''The Light of New York'' (with Jean-Michel Berts) (2007) *''Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere'' (2011) *''Homo Irrealis: Essays'' (2021)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Aciman|first=André|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ac_2DwAAQBAJ|title=Homo Irrealis|date=2021-01-19|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0-571-36647-7|language=en}}</ref> *{{cite book |title=Roman Year |date=2024-10-22 |isbn=978-0-374-61338-9 |last1=Aciman |first1=André |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux }}<ref name="f644">{{cite web |last=Forna |first=Aminatta |date=2024-10-21 |title=Book Review: 'Roman Year,' by André Aciman |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/21/books/review/andre-aciman-roman-year.html |access-date=2024-11-17 |website=The New York Times}}</ref><ref name="l039">{{cite web |last=Greenblatt |first=Leah |date=2024-10-21 |title=How the Writer André Aciman Learned to Live in Exile |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/21/books/andre-aciman-italy-memoir-roman-year.html |access-date=2024-11-17 |website=The New York Times}}</ref><ref name="t308">{{cite web |last=Power |first=Chris |date=2024-09-19 |title=My Roman Year by André Aciman review – Memento amore |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/sep/19/my-roman-year-by-andre-aciman-review-memento-amore |access-date=2024-11-17 |website=the Guardian}}</ref>

===Selected articles=== *"[https://www.threepennyreview.com/samples/aciman_sp00.html Reflections of an Uncertain Jew]". ''The Threepenny Review''. '''81'''. Spring 2000. *"[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/opinion/09aciman.html The Exodus Obama Forgot to Mention]". Opinion. ''The New York Times''. 8 June 2009. *"[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/03/17/are-you-listening Are You Listening? Conversations with my deaf mother]". Personal History. ''The New Yorker''. 17 March 2014. *"[https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/w-g-sebald-and-the-emigrants W. G. Sebald and the Emigrants]". ''The New Yorker''. 25 August 2016. *"[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/books/review/andre-aciman-by-the-book-interview.html André Aciman Would Like to Demote Virginia Woolf From the Canon]". [https://www.nytimes.com/column/by-the-book By the Book]. ''The New York Times''. 31 October 2019.

==References== {{Reflist|30em|refs= <ref name="epstein2003">Epstein, Joseph.{{cite web|url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/funny-but-i-do-look-jewish/article/4707|title=Funny, But I Do Look Jewish|access-date=23 September 2009|url-status = dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20051218015220/http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/469ewove.asp?pg=2|archive-date=18 December 2005|date=15 December 2003}}</ref><ref name="marinij2008">[http://www.marinij.com/lifestyles/ci_9373912 Meet the author: Aciman says he's all his characters] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006070021/http://www.marinij.com/lifestyles/ci_9373912 |date=6 October 2014 }}, Marin Independent Journal, 24 May 2008</ref><ref name="cuby-new">{{cite web|title=André Aciman|url=http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/new_faculty/Aciman.htm|publisher=City University of New York|access-date=18 August 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828030745/http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/new_faculty/Aciman.htm |archive-date=2008-08-28}}</ref><ref name="cuny-bio">{{cite web|title=André Aciman profile|url=http://web.gc.cuny.edu/Complit/faculty_pages/aaciman.htm|publisher=City University of New York|access-date=18 August 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614062025/http://web.gc.cuny.edu/Complit/faculty_pages/aaciman.htm |archive-date=2011-06-14 |quote=In addition to teaching the history of literary theory, he teaches the work of Marcel Proust and the literature of memory and exile.}}</ref><ref name="whiting-awards">{{cite news|title=Winners of Whiting Awards|newspaper=The New York Times|page=C15|date=30 October 1995|url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60614FC3E5D0C738FDDA90994DD494D81|access-date=21 September 2009|quote=Andre Aciman, whose first book, ''Out of Egypt'' (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1995), chronicles his childhood in Alexandria, Egypt.}}</ref><ref name="kakutani1994">{{cite news|last=Kakutani|first=Michiko|title=Books of the Times: Alexandria, and in Just One Volume|newspaper=The New York Times|page=21|date=27 December 1994|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/27/books/books-of-the-times-alexandria-and-in-just-one-volume.html|access-date=21 September 2009}}</ref><ref name="meaney2007">{{cite news|last=Meaney|first=Thomas|title=Naming Youths|newspaper=Bookforum|date=Feb{{ndash}}Mar 2007|url=http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/013_05/467|access-date=21 September 2009|quote=How strange that Aciman's first novel should run against the Proustian grain.}}</ref> <ref name="aciman2004">{{cite news|last=Aciman|first=Andre|title=Sailing to Byzantium by Way of Ithaca|newspaper=The New York Sun|page=1|date=16 June 2004|quote=Proust fans filled the Celeste Bartos Forum at the New York Public Library on Wednesday for an evening titled 'The Proust Project: A Discussion With Latter-Day Disciples, Admirers, and Shameless Imitators.' The event celebrated the publication of a book called ''The Proust Project'' in which Andre Aciman, a professor at CUNY Graduate Center, asked a group of writers to reflect on ''In Search of Lost Time''.}}</ref><ref name="washington-post1995">"Exodus From Egypt", ''The Washington Post'', 15 February 1995, page D02</ref><ref name="walters1995">Walters, Colin. "Visit to 'very small, very strange world'" ''The Washington Times'', 19 March 1995, page B6</ref><ref name="ormsby2007">{{cite news|last=Ormsby|first=Eric|title=Nature Loves to Hide|newspaper=The New York Sun|page=13|date=24 January 2007|quote=pays its respects to Proust but is brilliantly original....This is a novel of seduction in which the final prize is to win back something small but precious from the coquettishness of memory.}}</ref><ref name="derasmo2007">{{cite news|last=D'Erasmo|first=Stacey|title=Suddenly One Summer|newspaper=The New York Times|date=25 January 2007|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/books/review/DErasmo.t.html|access-date=21 September 2009|quote=This novel is hot. A coming-of-age story, a coming-out story, a Proustian meditation on time and desire, a love letter, an invocation and something of an epitaph, ''Call Me by Your Name'' is also an open question. It is an exceptionally beautiful book.}}</ref>}}

==Further reading== *{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/opinion/09aciman.html|title=The Exodus Obama Forgot to Mention|last=Aciman|first=André|date=8 June 2009|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=21 September 2009}}

==External links== {{wikiquote}} *[http://www.bookslut.com/features/2007_03_010784.php ''An Interview with Andre Aciman'', bookslut.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180201133820/http://www.bookslut.com/features/2007_03_010784.php |date=1 February 2018 }} *{{YouTube|DgYdBg_sg1Q|user=|channel=|''Andre Aciman on Writing, His Work and Inspirations''}} *{{Cite web|url=http://wesleyanargus.com/2009/03/27/novelist-and-visiting-prof-andre-aciman-shares-his-creative-process|title=Novelist and Visiting Prof. Andre Aciman Shares His Creative Process|website=The Wesleyan Argus|date=27 March 2009 |access-date=5 September 2017}} *[http://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/andre-aciman#/ André Aciman profile], The Whiting Foundation website; accessed 8 March 2018.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aciman, Andre}} Category:1951 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century American male writers Category:21st-century American essayists Category:21st-century American male writers Category:21st-century American novelists Category:21st-century American Jews Category:American literary critics Category:American male essayists Category:American male novelists Category:American memoirists Category:American people of Italian-Jewish descent Category:American people of Turkish-Jewish descent Category:American short story writers Category:Bard College faculty Category:Egyptian emigrants to the United States Category:CUNY Graduate Center faculty Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Category:Jewish American academics Category:Jewish American novelists Category:Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction winners Category:Lehman College alumni Category:New York University faculty Category:Novelists from Connecticut Category:Novelists from New Jersey Category:Novelists from New York (state) Category:Writers from Alexandria Category:Princeton University faculty Category:The New Yorker people Category:Wesleyan University faculty Category:Yeshiva University faculty