Bio

Amy Sohn’s new book, THE MAN WHO HATED WOMEN, was published in July 2021 with Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Her first book for children, Brooklyn Bailey, the Missing Dog, was published in April 2020 with Dial Books for Young readers to warm reviews like this one. In Fall 2019 she published CBD! with OR Books/Counterpoint. CBD! is a parodic parable written in the style of the beloved children’s book by William Steig, CDB!.

Amy is the New York Times-bestselling author of twelve books, including the novels Prospect Park West, Motherland, and The Actress.  Her books have been published in eleven languages and on five continents.

In 1995 Amy graduated from Brown University. In 1996 she launched an autobiographical dating diary, “Female Trouble,” in the downtown weekly New York Press, which elicited loads of bitter invective from readers and shamed her parents at cocktail parties. She followed her stint at New York Press with a bodacious column at the New York Post in a section of the paper called THERsdays.

Her first novel, Run Catch Kiss, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1999. In 2000, Amy co-created, wrote and starred in one of the first original programs to air on Oxygen, “Avenue Amy.” In August 2001 she landed at New York magazine, where she was a contributing editor for six years, writing the columns “Naked City,” “Mating,” and “Breeding.”

In September 2004 her second novel, My Old Man, about a May-December relationship between a rabbinical school dropout and an older screenwriter, was published by Simon & Schuster. Prospect Park West, Run Catch Kiss and My Old Man have been translated into ten languages.

In 2009 her third novel, Prospect Park West came out.

In 2012 the sequel to Prospect Park West, Motherland, was published.

In 2014, her next novel, The Actress, received much acclaim.

As a freelance journalist she has written for the New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, Slate, Details, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Men’s Journal, Playboy, and many others.

Amy has written two screenplays, Spin the Bottle, which you can stream right now for $3.99, and Pagans, which premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival. She has written television pilots for HBO, ABC, and Fox.

Her favorite writers are Laurie Colwin, Hilma Wolitzer, John Fante, Charles Bukowski, Nathanael West, Susan Minot, Mary Gaitskill, and Bruce Jay Friedman. Her favorite films include Gregory’s Girl, The Landlord, The Apartment, and Together. As a child she was taken to the films Places in the Heart, Silkwood, Kramer vs. Kramer, Heartland, Splash, Heart Like a Wheel, The Magical Mystery Tour, and Mr. Hulot’s Holiday. She saw them at theaters that don’t exist any more except for one: the Cobble Hill Movie Theatre. She has strong biceps but weak abs. She is aware that her inspiration for this list was the Kevin Costner speech in Bull Durham.

She believes that when it comes to hair highlights, cheap is expensive. Her favorite joke is, “What’s the difference between a Gentile and a Jew? A Gentile leaves without saying goodbye and a Jew says goodbye without leaving.” Her favorite candy is the York Peppermint Patty and she always has a knot in the same section of her hair when she wakes up.