{{short description|American writer}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2014}} {{Infobox writer | name = Keith Gessen | image = Keith Gessen.jpg | caption = | birth_name = Konstantin Alexandrovich Gessen | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1975|1|9}} | birth_place = [[Moscow]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]] | occupation = {{flatlist| * Editor * writer * academic }} | education = {{plainlist | * [[Harvard University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]]) * [[Syracuse University]] ([[Master of Fine Arts|MFA]])<ref name="ColumbiaFaculty" />}} | relatives = [[Masha Gessen|M. Gessen]] (sibling) }} '''Keith Gessen''' (born January 9, 1975)<ref>''U.S. Public Records Index'' Vol 1 & 2 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), 2010.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bu.edu/agni/fiction/print/2004/59-gessen.html|title=AGNI Online: Right of Return by Keith Gessen|website=www.bu.edu|access-date=2017-11-16}}</ref> is a Russian-born American novelist, journalist, and literary translator. He is co-founder and co-editor of American literary magazine ''[[n+1]]'' and an assistant professor of journalism at the [[Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism]].<ref name="ColumbiaFaculty">{{Cite web|url=https://journalism.columbia.edu/faculty/keith-gessen|title=Keith Gessen {{!}} School of Journalism|website=journalism.columbia.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-11-16}}</ref> In 2008 he was named a "5 under 35" honoree by the [[National Book Foundation]].
==Early life and education==
Born '''Konstantin Alexandrovich Gessen''' ({{langx|ru|Константи́н Алекса́ндрович Ге́ссен}}), he was raised in a Jewish family in [[Moscow]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="newsday">Joanna Smith Rakoff. "Talking with Masha Gessen, ''[[Newsday]]'', January 2, 2005.</ref> Gessen's mother was a literary critic<ref>[http://bigthink.com/ideas/1175 Keith Gessen on Rediscovering Russia, "Big Think"] May 13, 2008</ref> and his father is a computer scientist specializing in forensics.<ref>Gabriel Sanders, "Faces Forward: Author Tells Tale of Her Grandmothers' Survival", ''[[The Forward|Forward]]'', December 10, 2004</ref> His maternal grandmother, Rosalia (Ruzya) Solodovnik, was a Soviet government censor of dispatches filed by foreign reporters such as [[Harrison Salisbury]]; his paternal grandmother, Ester Goldberg, was a translator for a foreign literary magazine.<ref name="newsday" /> In 1981, his family moved to the United States, settling in the [[Boston]] area. They lived in [[Brighton, Massachusetts|Brighton]], [[Brookline, Massachusetts|Brookline]] and [[Newton, Massachusetts]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2025}}
Gessen graduated from [[Harvard University]] with a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in history and literature in 1998.<ref name="ColumbiaFaculty" /> He completed the course-work for his [[Master of Fine Arts|M.F.A.]] in creative writing from [[Syracuse University]] in 2004 but did not initially receive a degree, having failed to submit "a final original work of fiction."<ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/fashion/27gessen.html|work=The New York Times|title=A Literary Critic Drops His Ax and Picks Up His Pen|first=Dave|last=Itzkoff|date=April 27, 2008|access-date=May 7, 2010}}</ref> According to his Columbia University faculty biography, he ultimately received the degree.<ref name="ColumbiaFaculty" />
==Career== [[File:Keith Gessen and Ludmilla Petrushevskaya Shankbone 2009 NYC.jpg|thumb|right|Gessen with Russian novelist [[Ludmilla Petrushevskaya]] in 2009]]
Gessen has written about Russia for ''[[The New Yorker]]'', ''[[The London Review of Books]]'', ''[[The Atlantic]]'', and the ''[[New York Review of Books]]''.<ref>{{cite web|last=Wickett |first=Dan |title=Interview with Keith Gessen |publisher=Emerging Writers' Forum |date=March 6, 2005 |url=http://www.breaktech.net/EmergingWritersForum/View_Interview.aspx?id=143 |access-date=June 27, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612204527/http://www.breaktech.net/EmergingWritersForum/View_Interview.aspx?id=143 |archive-date=June 12, 2007 }}</ref> In 2004–2005, he was the regular book critic for ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' magazine. In 2005, [[Dalkey Archive Press]] published Gessen's translation of [[Svetlana Alexievich]]'s ''Voices from Chernobyl'' ({{Langx|ru-Latn|Tchernobylskaia Molitva}}), an oral history of the [[Chernobyl nuclear disaster]]. In 2009, [[Penguin Books|Penguin]] published his translation (with Anna Summers) of [[Ludmilla Petrushevskaya]]'s ''There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales''.
Gessen's first novel, ''[[All the Sad Young Literary Men]]'', was published in April 2008 and received mixed reviews. [[Joyce Carol Oates]] wrote that "in this debut novel there is much that is charming and beguiling, and much promise".<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2008/05/01/youth/|title=Youth!|last=Oates|first=Joyce Carol|date=2008-05-01|work=The New York Review of Books|access-date=2017-11-16|issn=0028-7504}}</ref> The novelist [[Jonathan Franzen]] has said of Gessen, "It's so delicious the way he writes. I like it a lot."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://observer.com/2007/11/no-surprises-at-national-book-awards-jonathan-franzen-talks-about-being-48/|title=No Surprises at National Book Awards; Jonathan Franzen Talks About Being 48|last=Neyfakh|first=Leon|date=2007-11-15|work=Observer|access-date=2017-11-16|language=en-US}}</ref> ''New York Magazine'', on the other hand, called the novel "self-satisfied" and "boringly [[solipsistic]]".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/46203/|title=Is This Book Worth Getting?|website=NYMag.com|access-date=2017-11-16}}</ref>
In 2010, Gessen edited and introduced ''Diary of a Very Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager'', a book about the [[Great Recession|financial crisis]].<ref>D. Garner, [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/books/14book.html Here’s Why the Cookie Crumbled]. July 13, 2010.</ref> In 2011, he became involved in the [[Occupy Movement]] in New York City. He co-edited the ''OCCUPY! Gazette'', a newspaper reporting on [[Occupy Wall Street]] and sponsored by ''[[n+1]]''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.nplusonemag.com/occupy|title=Occupy and Space|date=2012-01-05|work=n+1|access-date=2017-11-16|language=en-US}}</ref> On November 17, 2011, Gessen was arrested by the [[New York City police]] while covering and participating in an Occupy protest at the New York Stock Exchange.<ref>{{Citation|last=MiriMarkow|title=OccupyGessen|date=2011-11-17|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUxiAv5TjsQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/WUxiAv5TjsQ |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|access-date=2017-11-16}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/809-editors-of-new-verso-book-occupy-arrested-today-at-n17-protest|title=Editors of new Verso book Occupy! arrested today at N17 protest|work=Versobooks.com|access-date=2017-11-16}}</ref> He wrote about his experience for ''[[The New Yorker]]''.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/central-booking|title=Central Booking|last=Gessen|first=Keith|date=2011-11-28|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=2017-11-16|issn=0028-792X}}</ref>
In 2015, Gessen co-edited ''City by City: Dispatches from the American Metropolis'', which was named a "Best Summer Read of 2015" by ''[[Publishers Weekly]]''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://best-books.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/summer-reads-2015/nonfiction#book/book-2|title=Best Summer Books, 2015 Publishers Weekly|work=PublishersWeekly.com|access-date=2017-11-16}}</ref>
In 2018, Gessen's second novel, ''A Terrible Country'', was published. In March 2019, it was serialized on [[BBC Radio 4]].<ref name="BBC Radio 4">{{cite episode| title= A Terrible Country| series= A Terrible Country| credits= Writer: Keith Gessen; Reader: [[Trevor White (actor)|Trevor White]]; Abridged by: Jill Waters and Isobel Creed; Produced by Jill Waters | network= BBC| station= [[BBC Radio 4]]| url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003579| airdate= 11 March 2019| access-date= 15 March 2019 }}</ref>
Gessen wrote a non-fiction memoir about raising his son, titled ''Raising Raffi: The First Five Years'', which was published in 2022.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Garner |first1=Dwight |title='Raising Raffi,' a Father's Lucid Book About a Chaotic Scene |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/06/books/review-raising-raffi-keith-gessen.html |access-date=7 June 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=6 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220806203615/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/06/books/review-raising-raffi-keith-gessen.html|archive-date=6 August 2022}}</ref>
== Personal life == Gessen is married to the writer [[Emily Gould]]<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/dec/14/overstepping-bounds-blogger-emily-gould-oversharing|title=Overstepping the bounds: how blogger Emily Gould has been oversharing|last=Hicklin|first=Aaron|date=2014-12-14|work=The Observer|access-date=2017-11-16|language=en-GB|issn=0029-7712}}</ref> and was previously married when he arrived in New York City at age 22.<ref name="nytimes.com" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_269/loveandother.html|title=Love and other indoor sports|last=Norris|first=Sarah|date=June 27 - July 3, 2008|work=Downtown Express|access-date=2017-11-16|publisher=Community Media LLC|issue=7|volume=21|quote=Born in Russia, [Gessen] grew up in Massachusetts, attended Harvard, and then moved to New York at age 22 with a wife, from whom he is now divorced.|archive-date=December 31, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081231021158/http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_269/loveandother.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> {{As of|2008}}, he resided in [[Clinton Hill, Brooklyn]].<ref name="nytimes.com" /> He has three siblings, Daniel, Philip, and [[Masha Gessen|Masha]].
==Bibliography== === Novels === * {{cite book |author=Gessen, Keith |title=[[All the Sad Young Literary Men|All the sad young literary men]] |publisher=Penguin Books |date=2008 <!--|isbn=978-0143114772-->}} * {{cite book |author=Gessen, Keith |author-mask=1 |title=A terrible country : a novel |location=New York |publisher=Viking |date=2018 <!--|isbn=9780735221314-->}}
=== Non-fiction === * {{cite book |editor=Gessen, Keith |title=Diary of a very bad year : confessions of an anonymous hedge fund manager |date=2010 <!--|isbn=9780061965302-->}} * {{cite web |author=Gessen, Keith |author-mask=1 |title=Central Booking |department=News Desk |work=The New Yorker |date=November 27, 2011 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/central-booking <!--|access-date=2023-11-29-->}}<ref group=lower-alpha name="webonly">Available on website only.</ref> * {{cite journal |author=Gessen, Keith |author-mask=1 |date=May 12, 2014 |title=Waiting for war : can the country hold together? |department=Letter from Ukraine |journal=The New Yorker |volume=90 |issue=12 |pages=44–53 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/05/12/waiting-for-war-2 <!--|accessdate=2018-12-03-->}} * {{cite book |editor1=Gessen, Keith |editor2=Stephen Squibb |name-list-style=amp |title=City by city : dispatches from the American metropolis |location=New York |publisher=n + 1/Farrar, Straus and Giroux |date=2015 <!--isbn=9780865478312-->}} * {{cite journal |author=Gessen, Keith |date=November 6, 2017 |title=State of terror : a historian explains how Stalin turned Stalinist |journal=The New Yorker |volume=93 |issue=35 |pages=62–70 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/06/how-stalin-became-stalinist <!--|accessdate=2018-03-14-->}}<ref group=lower-alpha>Online version is titled "How Stalin became Stalinist".</ref> * {{cite book |author=Gessen, Keith |author-mask=1 |title=Raising Raffi : the first five years |location=New York |publisher=Viking |date=2022 <!--|isbn=9780593300442-->}} * {{cite journal |author=Gessen, Keith |author-mask=1 |date=April 25 – May 2, 2022 |title=Demilitarized : the novelist Andrey Kurkov writes of a Ukrainian beekeeper at war with war |department=The Critics. Books |journal=The New Yorker |volume=98 |issue=10 |pages=71–73 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/04/25/a-ukrainian-novel-looks-between-the-lines-of-war <!--|access-date=2023-07-20-->}}<ref group=lower-alpha>Online version is titled "A Ukrainian novel looks between the lines of war".</ref> * {{cite journal |author=Gessen, Keith |author-mask=1 |date=September 5, 2022 |title=Don't be like that : liberal parents, radical children, and the making of a literary masterpiece |department=The Critics. A Critic at Large |journal=The New Yorker |volume=98 |issue=27 |pages=55–60 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/09/05/liberals-radicals-and-the-making-of-a-literary-masterpiece-ivan-turgenevs-fathers-and-children-slater-translation <!--|access-date=2023-11-29-->}}<ref group=lower-alpha>Online version is titled "Liberals, radicals, and the making of a literary masterpiece".</ref>
=== Translations === * {{cite book |author=Alexievich, Svetlana |author-link=Svetlana Alexievich |others=Translated by Keith Gessen |title=Voices from Chernobyl |publisher=Dalkey Archive Press |date=2005 <!--isbn=-->}} * {{cite book |author=Petrushevskaya, Ludmilla |author-link=Ludmilla Petrushevskaya |others=Selected and translated by Keith Gessen and Anne Summers |title=There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales |location=New York |publisher=Penguin Books |date=2009 <!--isbn=9780143114666-->}} * {{cite book |author=Medvedev, Kiril |others=Translated by Keith Gessen, Mark Krotov, Corey Mead, and Bela Shayevich |title=It's no good |publisher=Ugly Duckling Press |date=2012 <!--isbn=-->}}
==Notes== {{reflist|40em|group=lower-alpha}}
==References== {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
==Further reading== '''Critical studies and reviews of Gessen's work''' * {{cite journal |author=Nixon, Burke |date=January 2023 |title=The parenting pendulum |journal=Commonweal |volume=150 |issue=1 |pages=69–71 |url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/parenting-pendulum |url-access=limited <!--|access-date=2023-06-09-->}}
==External links== {{commons}} *[http://www.nyinquirer.com/nyinquirer/2006/11/an_interview_wi.html ''New York Inquirer'' 2006 interview with Gessen about ''n+1''] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20100202142528/http://youngmanhattanite.com/2008/08/ym-keith-gessen-q.html ''Young Manhattanite'' 2008 interview with Gessen] *[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/fashion/27gessen.html ''New York Times'' profile of Gessen], April 27, 2008 *[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/books/14book.html?8dpc "Here’s Why the Cookie Crumbled"] Dwight Garner, ''[[The New York Times]]'', July 13, 2010
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gessen, Keith}} [[Category:American magazine editors]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Soviet emigrants to the United States]] [[Category:Harvard College alumni]] [[Category:Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts alumni]] [[Category:1975 births]] [[Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent]] [[Category:Writers from Brookline, Massachusetts]] [[Category:Writers from Newton, Massachusetts]] [[Category:Writers from Brooklyn]] [[Category:21st-century American novelists]] [[Category:American male novelists]] [[Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers]] [[Category:Jewish American novelists]] [[Category:21st-century American male writers]] [[Category:Novelists from New York (state)]] [[Category:Novelists from Massachusetts]] [[Category:The New Yorker people]] [[Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers]] [[Category:American male non-fiction writers]] [[Category:21st-century American Jews]]