John Burnham Schwartz arrived at the "Reservation Road" premiere at the United Artists' 64th St. Theater on October 4, 2007, in New York City.
School period
College/University
Gallery of John Schwartz
Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States
John B. Schwartz attended Harvard College, where he majored in Japanese studies. In 1987, Schwartz graduated with a Bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies.
Career
Gallery of John Schwartz
2007
Sutton Place Hotel, 955 Bay St, Toronto, ON M5S 2A2, Canada
John Burnham Schwartz attended the "Reservation Road" press conference during the Toronto International Film Festival 2007 held at the Sutton Place Hotel on September 12, 2007, in Toronto, Canada.
Gallery of John Schwartz
2007
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Pickford Center, 1313 Vine St, Los Angeles, CA 90028, United States
John Burnham (L) and wife Alexendra attended the premiere of Focus Features' "Reservation Road" at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences on October 18, 2007, in Beverly Hills, California.
Sutton Place Hotel, 955 Bay St, Toronto, ON M5S 2A2, Canada
John Burnham Schwartz attended the "Reservation Road" press conference during the Toronto International Film Festival 2007 held at the Sutton Place Hotel on September 12, 2007, in Toronto, Canada.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Pickford Center, 1313 Vine St, Los Angeles, CA 90028, United States
John Burnham (L) and wife Alexendra attended the premiere of Focus Features' "Reservation Road" at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences on October 18, 2007, in Beverly Hills, California.
Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States
John B. Schwartz attended Harvard College, where he majored in Japanese studies. In 1987, Schwartz graduated with a Bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies.
(In this incandescently observed novel, John Burnham Schwa...)
In this incandescently observed novel, John Burnham Schwartz introduces readers to one of the most appealing protagonists in contemporary fiction while enchanting them with the keenness of his eye and the aptness of his voice.
(A young man and woman meet, love each other, and are cons...)
A young man and woman meet, love each other, and are consumed. It’s a story as old as romance itself, but in this enthralling novel, John Burnham Schwartz tells it with heart-stopping new immediacy.
(In this national bestseller from the author of Reservatio...)
In this national bestseller from the author of Reservation Road, a young woman, Haruko, becomes the first nonaristocratic woman to penetrate the Japanese monarchy.
(From John Burnham Schwartz, one of the our most compellin...)
From John Burnham Schwartz, one of the our most compelling and compassionate writers, comes a riveting novel about the complex, fierce, ultimately inspiring resilience of families in the face of life’s most difficult and unexpected challenges.
(Running from her father’s brutal legacy, Joseph Stalin’s ...)
Running from her father’s brutal legacy, Joseph Stalin’s daughter defects to the United States during the turbulence of the 1960s. For fans of We Were the Lucky Ones and A Gentleman in Moscow, this sweeping historical novel and unexpected love story is inspired by the remarkable life of Svetlana Alliluyeva.
John Burnham Schwartz is an American novelist and screenwriter, whose books have been translated into twenty languages, and he has done extensive screen and television writing for the major Hollywood studios.
Background
John B. Schwartz was born in 1965, in New York City, New York, the son of Alan U. Schwartz, an entertainment attorney, and Paula Dunaway, an editor and writer. Schwartz's parents later apparently divorced; in 1983 his mother married the poet W. S. Merwin, and was known as Paula Merwin.
Education
Growing up in New York City, Schwartz attended the Manhattan Country School. He later attended Harvard College, where he majored in Japanese studies. In 1987, Schwartz graduated with a Bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies.
After graduating John Schwartz initially accepted a position with a Wall Street investment bank, before finally turning the position down, after selling his first novel. That book, Bicycle Days, a coming of age story about a young American man in Japan, was published in 1989 on his 24th birthday and garnered strong reviews.
Schwartz's second novel Reservation Road (1998), about a family tragedy and its aftermath, was critically acclaimed, and in 2007 was made into a major motion picture. The film, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, and Jennifer Connelly, was directed by Terry George, based on a screenplay that was co-written by Schwartz and George.
Schwartz went on to publish Claire Marvel (2002), a love story set in the United States and France, and, in 2008, The Commoner, a novel inspired by the life of Empress Michiko of Japan, the current empress and crown princess of Japan, and the first commoner to marry into the Japanese imperial family.
John Schwartz was a co-writer, with Sam Levinson and Samuel Baum, of the screenplay for The Wizard of Lies, a 2017 HBO movie about the disgraced financier Bernie Madoff, based on the non-fiction book of the same title by Diana B. Henriques.
Schwartz has contributed articles to publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Boston Globe, and Vogue. He has taught at Harvard, the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, and Sarah Lawrence College. He is the Literary Director of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference, based in Ketchum, Idaho.
(A young man and woman meet, love each other, and are cons...)
2002
Views
Quotations:
"I was 12. Our teacher made us write an autobiography and I realised that I wasn't very interesting. I began to make things up, and that's when I thought maybe I was a writer, or at least a fiction writer."
"It is one thing to recognise certain potentially useful affinities, and another to act on them."
"In Japan, more than in any other country I've ever been in, one is not supposed to write about the people in the glass bubble; that is why they are in the glass bubble."
Connections
John B. Schwartz is married to screenwriter and food writer Aleksandra Crapanzano, by whom he had a son, Garrick.