{{Short description|American novelist}} {{multiple issues| {{BLP sources|date=August 2014}} {{UPE|date=May 2019}} }} {{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox writer/doc --> | name = Scott Heim | image = Scott Heim - Mysterious Skin.jpg | caption = Heim in 2025 | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1966|9|26|mf=y}} | birth_place = Hutchinson, Kansas, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = {{flatlist| * Novelist * poet * editor }} | nationality = American | period = 1995–present | genre = Literary Fiction | subject = Memory, sex, childhood trauma | movement = | notableworks = ''Mysterious Skin'' (1995)<br>''We Disappear'' (2008) | spouse = | partner = Michael Lowenthal | children = | relatives = | awards = Lambda Literary Award for Fiction, 2009 | signature = | website = {{URL|https://scottheim.com/}} }}
'''Scott Heim''' (born September 26, 1966) is an American novelist from Hutchinson, Kansas, currently living in Massachusetts. Heim's first novel, ''Mysterious Skin'', was published in 1995.<ref name="GamboneGiard1999">{{cite book|last1=Gambone|first1=Philip|last2=Giard|first2=Robert|title=Something Inside: Conversations with Gay Fiction Writers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vnwBgBBVtyAC&pg=PA301|accessdate=25 February 2016|year=1999|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|isbn=9780299161347|page=301}}</ref>
== Biography == Scott Heim was born in Hutchinson, Kansas,<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Scott-Heim-back-in-Kansas-with-We-Disappear-3290087.php|title = Scott Heim back in Kansas with 'We Disappear'|date = 27 March 2008}}</ref> in 1966. He attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence, earning a B.A. in English and Art History in 1989 and an M.A. in English Literature in 1991.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}} He attended the M.F.A. program in Writing at Columbia University, where he wrote stories that evolved into his first novel, ''Mysterious Skin''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lawrence.com/news/2005/oct/10/mysterious_skin_film_inspired_former_ku_students_b/|title = 'Mysterious Skin': Film inspired by former KU student's book debuts on screen in Lawrence|date = 10 October 2005}}</ref> HarperCollins published that book in 1996, and Heim followed it with another novel,'' In Awe'', about a makeshift family of Kansas misfits, in 1997. ''Kirkus Reviews'' called it a "disappointing follow-up to ''Mysterious Skin''." ''In Awe'', however, won the 1998 Firecracker Alternative Book Award for Fiction.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.readersread.com/awards/firecracker.htm|title=Firecracker Alternative Book Awards|work=ReadersRead.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090304133738/http://www.readersread.com/awards/firecracker.htm|archive-date=Mar 4, 2009}}</ref>
In 2008, his novel ''We Disappear'' was published. ''Publishers Weekly'' described it as "Taut and beautifully clear, the writing at times recalls that of Paul Auster," but added "the plot ends in a place less interesting than where it began."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-146897-1|title = Fiction Book Review: We Disappear by Scott Heim, Author. Harper Perennial $13.95 (293p) ISBN 978-0-06-146897-1}}</ref>
In 2012, Heim began publishing a series of music-related nonfiction collections called "The First Time I Heard" series, for which he serves as editor. In these books, musicians and writers tell their stories of when they first heard an iconic band or artist.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lambdaliterary.org/2012/05/reader-meet-author-personal-advice-from-author-scott-heim/|title=Reader Meet Author: Personal Advice from Author Scott Heim|date=28 May 2012}}</ref>
Heim won fellowships to the London Arts Board as their International Writer-in-Residence, and to the Sundance Screenwriters' Lab for his adaptation of ''Mysterious Skin''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://history.sundance.org/search?for=scott+heim|title = Sundance Institute}}</ref> He is also the author of a book of poems, ''Saved From Drowning'' (1993).
''Mysterious Skin'' was adapted for the stage by playwright Prince Gomolvilas, premiering in San Francisco. It was subsequently adapted into a film of the same name by director Gregg Araki and Antidote Films. The movie starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbet, Elisabeth Shue, Michelle Trachtenberg, and Mary Lynn Rajskub.
After living 11 years in New York,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://english.colostate.edu/news/lgbt-history-month-scott-heim/|title = LGBT History Month: Scott Heim - English | Colorado State University| date=16 October 2017 }}</ref> Heim relocated to Boston in 2002 with his boyfriend, writer Michael Lowenthal.<ref name="auto"/>
== Works ==
=== Novels === * ''Mysterious Skin'' (1996) * ''In Awe'' (1997) * ''We Disappear'' (2008)
=== Poetry === * ''Saved From Drowning'' (1993)
=== Editor === * ''The First Time I Heard Joy Division / New Order'' (2012) * ''The First Time I Heard Cocteau Twins'' (2012) * ''The First Time I Heard David Bowie'' (2012) * ''The First Time I Heard The Smiths'' (2012) * ''The First Time I Heard Kate Bush'' (2012) * ''The First Time I Heard My Bloody Valentine'' (2014)
=== Contributor === * ''Discontents'', edited by Dennis Cooper (1994) * ''Waves: An Anthology of New Gay Fiction'', edited by Ethan Mordden (1994) * In the Nursery, ''Scatter'' (text for compilation CD) (1995) * ''Best American Gay Fiction'' (1996) * ''Boys Like Us: Gay Writers Tell Their Coming Out Stories'', edited by Patrick Merla (1996) * ''Personals: Dreams and Nightmares from the Lives of 20 Young Writers'', edited by Thomas Beller (1998) * ''Best American Gay Fiction 3'' (1998) * ''Obsessed: A Flesh and the Word Collection of Erotic Memoirs'', edited by Michael Lowenthal (1999) * ''Circa 2000: Gay Fiction at the Millennium'' (1999) * ''Something Inside: Conversations With Gay Fiction Writers'', edited by Philip Gambone (1999) * ''The Hot Spots: The Best Erotic Writing in Modern Fiction'' (2001) * ''The Book of Lists: Horror'', edited by Amy Wallace, Del Howison, and Scott Bradley (2008) * ''Travels in a Gay Nation: Portraits of LGBTQ Americans'' (2010) * ''David Hilliard: Highway of Thought'' (exhibition catalogue text for photographer David Hilliard) (2010) * Hood, ''Recollected'' (text for 6-disc compilation box set) (2012) * epic45, ''May Your Heart Be the Map'' (liner notes for album reissue) (2017)
==Filmography== * ''Mysterious Skin'' (novel basis) (2004)
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == *{{IMDb name|id=1721077|name=Scott Heim}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heim, Scott}} Category:1966 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century American novelists Category:21st-century American novelists Category:American male novelists Category:American gay writers Category:People from Hutchinson, Kansas Category:University of Kansas alumni Category:Novelists from Boston Category:Writers from Kansas Category:Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction winners Category:American LGBTQ novelists Category:20th-century American male writers Category:21st-century American male writers