Emily Schultz

Emily Schultz
Born1974 (age 49–50)
OccupationWriter
NationalityAmerican
GenreFiction
Website
www.emilyschultz.com

Emily Schultz (born 1974) is an American fiction writer raised in Canada and now living in Brooklyn, New York.

Life and career

During an onstage interview[1] with Margaret Atwood, Schultz described how her own family settled in Canada from Michigan in the early 1970s when her father deserted the U.S. Army at the height of the Vietnam War. Schultz's father had used a guide for draft evaders and deserters issued by one of her future publishers, House of Anansi.

She is the author of Black Coffee Night, a Danuta Gleed nominated 2002 collection of stories. A story from that collection ("The Value of X") was adapted by Lynne Stopkewich, director of Kissed. In 2005 Schultz published her first novel, Joyland.[2] and was included in a round table discussion hosted by The Globe and Mail with Sheila Heti titled "Tomorrow's Ondaatjes and Munros."[3]

In 2009 House of Anansi Press published Schultz's second novel, Heaven Is Small.[4] The satirical novel was based on her year spent as a night shift proofreader for Harlequin Enterprises.[5]

In 2014 a glitch on Amazon caused customers to buy her novel Joyland by mistake, believing they were purchasing a novel by Stephen King with the same title. Schultz chronicled her experiences on a Tumblr called Spending the Stephen King Money.[6]

Her novel The Blondes was published by St. Martin's Press in 2015[7] and listed as a Best Fiction Book of the Year by Kirkus,[8] BookPage,[9] and NPR, who described it as "scary and deeply, bitingly funny — a satire about gender that kept me reading until 4 in the morning — and a fine addition to the all-too-small genre of feminist horror."[10] In May 2017 it was announced that The Blondes would be developed as an original series for AMC Networks' Shudder with Schultz writing along with her husband, video director Brian Joseph Davis.[11] When Schultz regained the rights in 2019, she and Davis produced[12] a scripted podcast adaptation starring Madeline Zima and Rob Belushi. It was executive produced by Duncan Birmingham.

In March 2019 it was announced that her next novel, Little Threats, was sold to Putnam at auction for publication in 2020.[13] Set in 2008 and flashing back to the grunge-era 1990s, Little Threats is "a literary suspense about the new questions and old tragedies that surface after a young woman who pleaded guilty to her best friend's murder is released from prison."[14]

Schultz is the co-founder of the literary website Joyland: A hub for short fiction. She is also the parent of an autistic child and is an advocate[15] for special needs education in New York City.

References

  1. ^ "The Survival Of CanLit". Vancouver Writers' Festival. Archived from the original on March 3, 2014. Retrieved March 3, 2014.
  2. ^ Theissen, Cherrie (January 30, 2006). "The Summer of '84". January. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved January 30, 2006.
  3. ^ Gzowski, Alison (January 30, 2005). "Tomorrow's Ondaatjes and Munros". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on February 11, 2005. Retrieved January 30, 2005.
  4. ^ Beattie, Steven (April 29, 2009). "Anansi and Shortcovers team up to give away digital book". Quill & Quire. Archived from the original on April 26, 2009. Retrieved April 29, 2009.
  5. ^ Medley, Mark (April 18, 2009). "To Hell In A Harlequin". National Post. Retrieved April 18, 2009.[permanent dead link‍]
  6. ^ Shamsian, Jacob (June 18, 2014). "Stephen King responds to 'Joyland' mixup". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on December 19, 2015. Retrieved December 3, 2015.
  7. ^ Keeler, Emily (October 10, 2013). "The writer who was mistaken for Stephen King". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 3, 2014.
  8. ^ "Best Fiction Books of 2015". Kirkus Reviews. December 3, 2015. Archived from the original on September 5, 2019. Retrieved December 3, 2015.
  9. ^ Ping, Trisha (November 25, 2015). "Best Books of 2015". BookPage. Archived from the original on December 2, 2019. Retrieved December 3, 2015.
  10. ^ "Emily Schultz". NPR.org. Archived from the original on October 2, 2017. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
  11. ^ "AMC Networks' Streaming Service Shudder Launches Original Programming With 'Primal Screen' Doc (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on June 5, 2017. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
  12. ^ "5 Reasons We're Excited For 'The Blondes' Podcast!". Villain Media. June 12, 2019. Archived from the original on June 13, 2019. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  13. ^ "Deals of the week". www.publishersweekly.com. Archived from the original on April 8, 2019. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  14. ^ "March 29, 2019, Little Threats by Emily Schultz". Publishers Marketplace. March 29, 2019. Archived from the original on January 12, 2024. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  15. ^ Schultz, Emily (June 6, 2017). "A Writing Mother Is a Selfish Mother". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Archived from the original on March 14, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018.