Jill Ciment Explained

Jill Ciment
Birth Date:	19 March 1953
Birth Place:	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Occupation:	Memoirist, novelist, and professor
Nationality:	American

Jill Ciment (born March 19, 1953) is an American writer.

Biography

Ciment was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She studied art at the California Institute of Arts (CalArts), under John Baldessari.^[1] She earned her BFA from CalArts in 1975.^[2] She received her MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine in 1981.^[3]

Ciment is a professor of English at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Her novel, Heroic Measures, was one of titles chosen by Oprah Winfrey's Book Club for 2009 summer reading.^[4] The book was also one of the top five finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for 2010.^[5] 5 Flights Up, a film adaptation of Heroic Measures starring Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton, was released in the U.S. on May 8, 2015.

She began an affair with her art teacher, Arnold Mesches, when she was 17 and in his class. He was 47, and married with two children. They moved in together the following year, married, and were together until his death in 2016.^[6] Her memoir, Half a Life, reflected on their relationship together and was published in 1996. Following Arnold's death and in context of the Me Too movement, she re-examined their almost 50 year relationship with a new memoir, Consent.^[7]

Grants and literary awards

• Two New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (1996 and 2002)^[8]
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (2005)^[9]
• Guggenheim Foundation grant (2006)^[10]
• The Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize (2005)^[11]
• NEA Japan Fellowship Prize

Works

Novels

• The Law of Falling Bodies, Poseidon, 1993^[12]
• Teeth of the Dog, Crown, 1998^[13]
• The Tattoo Artist, Pantheon, 2005^[14]
• Heroic Measures, Pantheon, 2009^[15]
• Act of God, Pantheon, 2015^[16]
• The Hand That Feeds You, (with Amy Hempel) writing as A.J. Rich, Scribner, 2015^[17]
• The Body in Question, Pantheon, 2019^[18]

Short stories

Collections:

• Small Claims, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1986, collection of 4 (or more) short stories:

"Self-Portrait with Vanishing Point", "Genetics", "Astronomy", "Money" (novella)

Non-fiction

• Half a Life, Crown, 1996^[19]
• Consent, Pantheon, 2024^[20]

Adaptations

• Astronomy (1998), short directed by Susan Rogers, based on short story "Astronomy"
• 5 Flights Up (2014), film directed by Richard Loncraine, based on novel Heroic Measures

Notes and References

1. Web site: ARNOLD MESCHES and JILL CIMENT with Robert Storr and Phong Bui. 4 March 2010. Brooklynrail.org. 31 October 2014. 31 October 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141031214211/http://www.brooklynrail.org/2010/03/art/in-conversation-arnold-mesches-and-jill-ciment-with-robert-storr-and-phong-bui. live.
2. Web site: Noted Novelist Brings Remarkable Personal Story To Davidson Classroom . Davidson.edu . 31 October 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120224223837/http://www2.davidson.edu/news/news_archives/archives00/00.01jciment.html . 24 February 2012 .
3. Web site: Jill Ciment : Professor. English.ufl.edu. 31 October 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20151020021213/http://www.english.ufl.edu/faculty/jciment/index.html. 20 October 2015. dead. dmy-all.
4. Web site: Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment. Oprah.com. 31 October 2014. 22 June 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090622193109/http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahsbookclub/readinglists/pkgsummerreading/200907-omag-excerpt-heroic-measures/3. live.
5. Web site: 2009 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Winners. Events.latimes.com. 31 October 2014. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20141111014236/http://events.latimes.com/bookprizes/previous-winners/year-2009/. 11 November 2014.
6. News: Alter . Alexandra . 2024-06-10 . At 17, She Fell in Love With a 47-Year-Old. Now She Questions the Story. . 2024-07-05 . The New York Times . en-US . 0362-4331.
7. Web site: 2024-06-10 . Jill Ciment considers her decades-long marriage in light of #MeToo in 'Consent' : NPR . 2024-06-10 . web.archive.org.
8. Web site: Directory of Artists' Fellows, 1985-2013 . www.nyfa.org . New York Foundation for the Arts . January 3, 2017 . April 13, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140413141907/https://s3.amazonaws.com/NYFA_WebAssets/Pictures/6b2ad3f7-2970-4032-9d75-d886c72943cd.pdf . live .
9. Quote from source: She has ... received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and others.
10. Web site: Jill Ciment . www.gf.org . 2006 . January 3, 2017 . January 4, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170104091506/http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/jill-ciment/ . live .
11. Web site: Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize—Past Recipients . www.rochester.edu . 2005 . January 3, 2017 . December 22, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161222091238/http://www.rochester.edu/college/gsw/SBAI/recipients.html . live .
12. Book: Ciment, Jill. The law of falling bodies. 1993. Poseidon Press. 0-671-79451-5. New York. 26588628. registration.
13. Book: Ciment, Jill. Teeth of the dog : a novel. 1999. Crown Publishers. 0-517-70202-9. 1st. New York. 39180866. registration.
14. Book: Ciment, Jill. The tattoo artist. 2005. Pantheon Books. 0-375-42325-7. 1st. New York. 57283791. registration.
15. Book: Ciment, Jill. Heroic measures. 2015. 978-1-78227-194-9. London. 938790734.
16. Book: Ciment, Jill. Act of God. 2015. 978-0-307-91170-4. New York. 881406944. registration.
17. Book: Rich, A. J.. The hand that feeds you. 7 July 2015. 978-1-4767-7458-9. New York. 900158232.
18. Book: Ciment, Jill . The body in question : a novel. 2019. 978-1-5247-4798-5. First. New York. 1049577535.
19. Book: Ciment, Jill . Half a life. 1997. Anchor Books. 0-385-48891-2. 1st Anchor Books . New York. 36501398.
20. Book: Ciment, Jill . Consent: A Memoir . Pantheon . 2024 . 978-0593701065 .