| Occupation: | Writer, psychotherapist |
| Nationality: | American |
| Relatives: | Michael Lubell (brother-in-law) |
| Education: | Wesleyan University (BA) Smith College (MSW) |
Amy Beth Bloom (born 1953) is an American writer and psychotherapist. She is professor of creative writing at Wesleyan University, and has been nominated for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Bloom is the daughter of Murray Teigh Bloom (1916–2009),[1] an author, and Sydelle J. Cohen, a psychotherapist.[2] Bloom received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater/Political Science, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Wesleyan University, and a M.S.W. (Master of Social Work) from Smith College.
Trained as a social worker, she has practiced psychotherapy. Currently, Bloom is the Kim-Frank Family University Writer in Residence at Wesleyan University[3] (effective July 1, 2010).[4] Previously, she was a senior lecturer of creative writing in the department of English at Yale University,[5] where she taught Advanced Fiction Writing, Writing for Television, and Writing for Children.[6] [7]
Bloom has written articles in periodicals including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, Slate, and Salon.com. Her short fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories and several other anthologies, and has won a National Magazine Award.[7] In 1993, Bloom was nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction for Come to Me: Stories and in 2000 was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You.[8]
Having undergone training as a clinical social worker at the Smith College School for Social Work, Bloom used her understanding of psychotherapy in creating the 2007 Lifetime Television network TV show, State of Mind, which looked at the professional lives of psychotherapists. She is listed as creator, co-executive producer, and head writer for the series.[9] [10]
In August 2012, Bloom published her first children's book, entitled Little Sweet Potato (HarperCollins). According to The New York Times, the story "follows the trials of a 'lumpy, dumpy, bumpy' young tuber who is accidentally expelled from his garden patch and must find a new home. On his journey, he is castigated first by a bunch of xenophobic carrots, then by a menacing gang of vain eggplants."[11]
Bloom currently resides in Connecticut. Though sometimes referred to as a cousin of literary critic Harold Bloom, she says their "cousinhood is entirely artificial and volitional".[12]
She has been married to two men, with a relationship with a woman in between. She has three children with her first husband, James Donald Moon.[13] Her sister, Ellen Bloom, is married to physicist Michael Lubell.[14] The assisted death of Amy Bloom’s second husband, Brian Ameche, is the subject of her memoir, In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss.
Her father was the freelance writer Murray Teigh Bloom,[15] a founder and former president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.[16] [17] [18]