{{short description|American writer (born 1976)}} {{Infobox writer |birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1976|8|10|mf=y}} |birth_place = Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, U.S. |death_date = |death_place = |occupation = Writer, professor |alma_mater = North Monterey County High School |period = |genres = Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry |subject = |movement = |notableworks = ''Last Mass'' |spouse = |partner = |children = |relatives = }} '''Jamie Iredell''' (born August 10, 1976) is an American writer.

== Early life == Iredell grew up in Castroville, California,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://therumpus.net/author/jamie-iredell/|title=Jamie Iredell|website=The Rumpus.net|accessdate=Apr 11, 2020}}</ref> and attended North Monterey County High School. He earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in English from the University of Nevada, Reno, and his PhD. in English from Georgia State University.

== Career == Iredell's writing has been positively reviewed by ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution''<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.ajc.com/entertainment/jamie-iredell-weighs-body-issues-substance-abuse-essay-collection/tBq1maz5irNApIc94nWnsO/|title=Jamie Iredell weighs in on body issues, substance abuse in essay collection|first=For the AJC|last=Tray Butler|newspaper=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution|accessdate=Apr 11, 2020}}</ref> and ''The Brooklyn Rail''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2019/05/books/The-Fat-Kid-by-Jamie-Iredell|title=The Fat Kid by Jamie Iredell|first=Hugh|last=Sheehy|date=May 1, 2019|website=The Brooklyn Rail|accessdate=Apr 11, 2020}}</ref>

Writing in 2010, the ''Quarterly Conversation'' said of ''Prose, Poems, a Novel'' that "The title of the collection serves as a bold declaration of war on the boundaries of genre. Iredell is not flouting the rules of genre, though. Instead, Iredell weaves his three titular genres together into a form that is all its own, containing elements of each."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://quarterlyconversation.com/drugs-alcohol-and-poetry-prose-poems-a-novel-by-jamie-iredell|title = Drugs, Alcohol, and Poetry: Prose. Poems. A novel. By Jamie Iredell » Quarterly Conversation}}</ref>

Nailed Magazine wrote of ''The Book of Freaks'' in 2011, that “Iredell has produced an absolute masterpiece of the absurd and surreal – a faux-encyclopedia that contains pieces of everything and everyone you have ever encountered in your life.”<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nailedmagazine.com/fiction/the-book-of-freaks-jamie-iredell-2011/ |title=The Book of Freaks Book Review &#124; Jamie Iredell, Book of Freaks: in Review &#124; Smalldoggies Magazine Nailed Magazine |publisher=Nailedmagazine.com |date=2011-04-01 |accessdate=2019-11-08}}</ref>

In 2014, ''Publishers Weekly'' noted of ''I Was a Fat Drunk Catholic School Insomniac'', that it is “An entertaining and insightful collection often interested in the messy and difficult aspects of life.”<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-892061-46-1 |title=Nonfiction Book Review: I Was a Fat Drunk Catholic School Insomniac by Jamie Iredell. Future Tense (www.futuretensebooks.com), $12 trade paper (200p) ISBN 978-1-892061-46-1 |publisher=Publishersweekly.com |date=2014-02-28 |accessdate=2019-11-08}}</ref>

''Los Angeles Magazine'' listed ''Last Mass'' among "6 Books You Need to Read this August"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/6-books-you-need-to-read-this-august/|title=6 Books You Need to Read This August|last1=Harl|first1=Thomas|last2=er|date=2015-08-07|website=Los Angeles Magazine|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-01}}</ref> in 2015. Also, in 2015, ''Slate'' wrote about ''Last Mass'' as “An exemplary work of creative nonfiction in the vein of Maggie Nelson’s ''Argonauts''."<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/11/underrated_books_of_2015_overlooked_novels_collections_and_nonfiction_of.html |title=Underrated books of 2015: Overlooked novels, collections, and nonfiction of the year |journal=Slate |publisher=Slate.com |date=2015-11-30 |accessdate=2019-11-08}}</ref>

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has called his writing "wildly imaginative".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.ajc.com/entertainment/books--literature/modern-day-sci-western-study-nihilism/xW7LxNSVMdQZdM9lHoR2TM/|title=Modern-day sci-fi western a study in nihilism|first=For Cox Newspapers|last=Jeff Calder|newspaper=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution|accessdate=Apr 11, 2020}}</ref> His 2018 novel ''The Fat Kid'' drew comparison to Cormac McCarthy.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2019/05/books/The-Fat-Kid-by-Jamie-Iredell|title=The Fat Kid by Jamie Iredell|first=Hugh|last=Sheehy|date=May 1, 2019|website=The Brooklyn Rail}}</ref>

In addition to writing, he teaches college literature and creative writing.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scad.edu/content/poetry-readings-jamie-iredell-and-josh-russell|title=Poetry Readings - Jamie Iredell and Josh Russell|website=SCAD.edu|language=en|access-date=2020-01-01}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://source.oglethorpe.edu/2018/10/18/oglethorpe-in-the-news-oct-12-18/|title=Oglethorpe in the news: Oct 12-18|date=Oct 18, 2018|website=The Source|accessdate=Apr 11, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ece.emory.edu/instructor.php?ID=2426|title=Jamie Iredell|accessdate=Apr 11, 2020}}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

== Scholarship on Works ==

In his 2018 critical study, ''Poetry in the Novel'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.peterlang.com/document/1057072|title=Poetry in the Novel|last1=Lang|first1=Peter|last2=er|date=2025-09-04|website=Peter Lange|language=en-US|access-date=2025-09-04}}</ref> scholar Adrian Kempton assesses Iredell's work in the fifth chapter: "Borderline Vignettes: Jamie Iredell's ''Prose. Poems. a novel.''" Kempton writes that the book's title "draw[s] attention to its unclassifiable generic status" and that the pieces within are fairly regulated prose pieces in mostly right and left justified "blocks" containing "lines of nine to twelve syllables, with four or five main stresses in each." Kempton notes that the book is reminiscent of Beat writers, such as Burroughs and Kerouac, and that Iredell over-relies on simile and--"glaringly forced"—analogy. However, he also writes that the pieces that make up Iredell's book "ultimately form a consistent whole" with "parallel movement in the narrative across time levels."

== Bibliography == *''Prose, Poems, a Novel'' (Orange Alert Press, 2009) {{ISBN|978-0981748122}}. *''The Book of Freaks'' (Future Tense Books, 2010) {{ISBN|978-1892061393}}. *''I Was a Fat Drunk Catholic School Insomniac'' (Future Tense Books, 2011) {{ISBN|978-1892061461}}. *''Last Mass'' (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2015) {{ISBN|978-1937865429}}. *''The Fat Kid'' (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2018) {{ISBN|978-1948700085}}.

== References == {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Iredell, Jamie}} Category:1976 births Category:Living people Category:American male novelists Category:21st-century American novelists Category:21st-century American male writers Category:Writers from Carmel-by-the-Sea, California