Author Kellerman on his religious and literary roots
By Sarah Morrison
August 29, 2008
Noted author Jesse Kellerman will be speaking at a dessert reception sponsored by the Oscar and Ella Wilf Campus for Senior Living,
Kellerman, the son of thriller writers Jonathan and Faye Kellerman, is an award-winning playwright as well as the author of three novels, with two more slotted for publication in the future.
Kellerman holds a masters degree in fine arts from
"My plays were featured at the Fringe Festival (the world's largest theater festival held annually in Edinburgh, Scotland)," Kellerman told The Jewish State in a phone interview. "There were productions in Boston and New York City... I am trained as a playwright. I am going to be talking about my life as a theater writer and my transition from theater to novelist. I am still loosely involved in certain theater projects, but fiction is very time consuming."
"I wrote around 30 plays;" Kellerman continued. "You have to write a lot of plays in the course of getting one produced. Only three or four were published."
One of the four plays Kellerman published is "Things Beyond Our Control," a play that earned him the Princess Grace award in 2003, a prestigious award given to up-and-coming playwrights. The prize money from the award gave Kellerman the means to take off a year to complete his first novel, "Sunstroke."
Surprisingly, becoming a novelist was not a shoe-in for Kellerman. Although he recognizes that it's a "reasonable assumption" that the son of two authors would end up in the same field, he makes it very clear that it is a "very common misconception" nonetheless.
"It's a very hard profession to break into," Kellerman said. "Nobody's going to publish me as a favor to my parents or because of my surname. They publish me because they think that they can sell my books."
There is no need for parental approval; Kellerman's writing stands on its own and speaks for itself. In addition to the Princess Grace award that he received, the group International Thriller Writers nominated his second book "Trouble" for novel of the year in 2008.
Kellerman grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home in
"My Judaism influences my world view and my thinking about ethics," Kellerman said. "I do talk about it, but it's not something that is prominent in my development as a writer. It's a huge part of my life nonetheless. It almost always comes up [in discussions]."
However, Kellerman is conscious of the way that his religious and professional life intertwines and appears in his books.
"I do have Jewish characters and Judaism comes up in small ways in the books," Kellerman said. "In my first novel (Sunstroke), the protagonist is not Jewish, although at one point, she recollects her mother performing Judaic rituals. This is supposed to hint to her origins as a Morano Jew far back, but she's far removed from it."
The scene in the book depicts the protagonist's mother performing a Friday night ritual. Affiliated people will automatically understand that Shabbat candles are being lit, but "if they miss it, they miss it."
Kellerman has a particular love of meeting his fans and readers; he is coming to
"I love speaking to crowds because it's one of the few times in a novelist's career when he actually gets to meet and see other people," Kellerman said. "Usually, I'm sitting in an office, talking to a computer screen. This is an opportunity to get out and take questions. I'm continually amazed and surprised by the things that people and ask and say... especially when I speak to an older crowd. Often, they're well read. They keep me on my toes like nobody else can. Never underestimate the intelligence of your audience."
Jesse Kellerman's talk will be about his life and career thus far, focusing on growing up in a novelist home, his transition from playwright to author, and a brief discussion on each of his novels. It will take place at the