Enough About Me

In Brief

Suitable for Snap Judgments, as of March 2013

Micah Nathan is an award-winning author, short story writer, and essayist. His debut novel “Gods of Aberdeen” (Simon & Schuster) was published in five languages and became an international bestseller. His second novel “Losing Graceland” (Random House/Broadway) was released January, 2011, followed by his first short story collection “Jack the Bastard and Other Stories”  in August, 2012.

His work has appeared in The Best American Mystery Stories, Bellingham Review, Glimmer Train, The Gettysburg Review, Diagram, Boston Globe Magazine, Post Road, Commonweal and other national publications. He received his MFA from Boston University, where he was awarded the 2010 Saul Bellow Prize, and his short stories have been finalists for the Tobias Wolff Award and the Innovative Fiction Award. When not penning his next tale of mayhem and woe, Micah writes the occasional iOS game, watches a pitch-perfect blend of French New Wave cinema and indie horror, and serves as fiction editor for LEMON Magazine.

Much Longer

Suitable for Killing Time at Work

Where it all began: Born in Hollywood (identity thieves: take note) during the era of bad fabric and pudding-soft music. My parents were intellectuals in the tradition of Dylan, Kissinger, and Nureyev. They longed for a bi-coastal life (if you consider Lake Erie a coast) but their Buffalo roots ran deep; we soon left the beautiful decay of West Hollywood and settled twenty miles south of Buffalo, in the farm town of Boston, New York. I remember the smell of cow manure in the spring, hills speckled green, and Lynyrd Skynyrd always playing on someone’s radio.

The middle years: I considered myself both outcast and popular kid, a fashion pioneer (kung-fu slippers, velcro-buttoned shirts, parachute pants), breakdancer, and martial arts master in the tradition of Bruce Lee and Michael Dudikoff. I weighed approximately 80 lbs. My hair was large and unruly. I got my first professional haircut in ninth grade, when I decided I wanted hair just like Jeff Bridges, and made an appointment at Glad You’re Hair. Thus began my lifelong hatred of salon puns.

A defining moment: G.I. Joe issue #21. Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow have the same tattoo. No dialogue is used throughout the entire comic.

My parents were concert promoters. Mine was a life spent backstage, watching musicians in their quiet moments: Bruce Springsteen eating his birthday cake, Bob Seger brushing his enormous teeth, Prince yawning.

Later: Heartbreak, more writing, more heartbreak, and an obsession with medieval history. I raised and bred African cichlids. I started boxing. At 21, I embarked on a motivational speaking tour, the first stop at Barnes & Noble on Niagara Falls Boulevard in Buffalo, the second at Charleston College in Charleston. The first was well-attended by a mix of friends, family, and a handful of strangers who’d wandered in from the self-help section. The second had four audience members. All four were the A/V guys who set up my slide presentation. Thus ended my tour.

A little later: A blend of false starts and minor failures.

Even later: Realizing that one can make a living as a writer, if one is both lucky and absurdly, almost self-destructively, stubborn.

July 2nd, 2012