Amy Bloom

Amy Beth Bloom (born 1953) is an American writer and psychotherapist. She is professor of creative writing at Wesleyan University, and has been nominated for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Early life and career Bloom is the daughter of Murray Teigh Bloom (1916–2009), an author, and Sydelle J. Cohen, a psychotherapist. Bloom received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater/Political Science, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Wesleyan University, and a M.S.W. (Master of Social Work) from Smith College. (effective July 1, 2010). Previously, she was a senior lecturer of creative writing in the department of English at Yale University, where she taught Advanced Fiction Writing, Writing for Television, and Writing for Children.

Bloom has written articles in periodicals including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, Slate, and Salon.com. Her short fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories and several other anthologies, and has won a National Magazine Award.

Having undergone training as a clinical social worker at the Smith College School for Social Work, Bloom used her understanding of psychotherapy in creating the 2007 Lifetime Television network TV show, State of Mind, which looked at the professional lives of psychotherapists. She is listed as creator, co-executive producer, and head writer for the series.

In August 2012, Bloom published her first children's book, entitled Little Sweet Potato (HarperCollins). According to The New York Times, the story "follows the trials of a 'lumpy, dumpy, bumpy' young tuber who is accidentally expelled from his garden patch and must find a new home. On his journey, he is castigated first by a bunch of xenophobic carrots, then by a menacing gang of vain eggplants."

Personal life Bloom currently resides in Connecticut. Though sometimes referred to as a cousin of literary critic Harold Bloom, she says their "cousinhood is entirely artificial and volitional".

She has been married to two men, with a relationship with a woman in between. She has three children with her first husband, James Donald Moon. Her sister, Ellen Bloom, is married to physicist Michael Lubell. The assisted death of her second husband, Brian Ameche, following his Alzheimer's diagnosis is the subject of her memoir, In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss.

Her father was the freelance writer Murray Teigh Bloom, a founder and former president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

Works

Fiction Novels Love Invents Us (1997) Away (2007) Lucky Us (2014) White Houses (2018) I'll Be Right Here (2025)

Short stories Come to Me: Stories (1993) A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You: Stories (2000) The Story (2006) Where the God of Love Hangs Out (2009) Rowing to Eden: Collected Stories (2015)

Non-fiction Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Cross-dressing Cops, and Hermaphrodites with Attitude (2002) In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss (2022)

Screenplays, teleplays and television shows State of Mind (2007) Wish Dragon (2021)