Jonathan "Jon" Papernick (born 1970) is a Canadian-born American short story writer, novelist and storyteller.
Papernick (pronounced Paper—nick) was born in Toronto, Ontario. He is the author of The Ascent of Eli Israel, a collection of short stories set in Israel during the collapse of the Oslo Peace Accords,[1] the short story collection There Is No Other, the limited-edition anthology of erotic short fiction XYXX, and the novel The Book of Stone. His work has appeared in the anthologies Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction From The Edge (2003) and Scribblers on the Roof: Contemporary Jewish Fiction (2006) and numerous literary journals.
In the summer of 2010, Papernick began hand-selling his books via pushcart at farmers' markets in New England and New York as Papernick the Book Peddler.[2] The name is an homage to the classic Yiddish writer Sholem Yankev Abramovich, AKA Mendele Mocher Sforim (Mendele the Book Peddler.) Papernick the Book Peddler's motto is: Bringing Market-Fresh Fiction Directly to the People.
His novel The Book of Stone, was published in 2015. Award-winning author of The World to Come, Dara Horn called The Book of Stone, "Devastating, gripping and beautiful...Open this book carefully. You will close it changed."[3]
Papernick's novel, I Am My Beloveds, a fictional exploration of a couple grappling with the complications of an open marriage, will be published in January 2022. Author Lana Popovic Harper wrote, "I Am My Beloveds is a warm, funny, thoughtful, and often heart-wrenching portrait of a modern couple testing the boundaries of their relationship, while exploring the outer limits of their love for each other. It's an engaging and timely read, perfect for a generation of readers much more open to the allure (and pitfalls) of polyamory."
He is a senior writer-in-residence at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.[4]