A. J. Bermudez
American screenwriter and fiction writer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A. J. Bermudez is an American author, screenwriter, and director. Her short fiction and screenwriting have won a number of awards, including the PAGE International Screenwriting Award (iCON, 2021),[1][2] the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize ("The Lady Will Pay for Everything", 2021),[3] and the Iowa Short Fiction Award (Stories No One Hopes Are About Them, University of Iowa Press, 2022).[4] Her films have been produced in the U.S. and internationally,[5] and her literary writing has appeared in McSweeney's,[2] Virginia Quarterly Review,[6] Story,[7] Chicago Review,[8] The Masters Review,[9] Fiction International,[10] Electric Literature,[11] Boulevard,[12] Creative Nonfiction,[13] and elsewhere.
A. J. Bermudez | |
|---|---|
| |
| Born | Amanda J. Bermudez |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Writing career | |
| Genres | Screenwriting, fiction, short fiction |
| Notable works | My Dead Friend Zoe, iCON, Nightingale, Stories No One Hopes Are About Them |
| Notable awards | PAGE International Screenwriting Award, Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize, Iowa Short Fiction Award |
| Website | amandajbermudez |
Personal life
Bermudez grew up in various parts of the United States, and after graduating high school at age 16, she moved to Russia, where she worked as a music translator and with the Afghan refugee population in Moscow.[14][15] Prior to screenwriting, Bermudez worked as an EMT.[14][16]
In interviews, Bermudez has talked about the loss of her parents at a young age, and has described "writing, like mourning, [as] a constant negotiation between the political and the personal."[17][18]
Career
Bermudez has been a vocal advocate of social justice and the arts.[19] In 2019, she was named one of the Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch by the International Screenwriters Association.[20] Her debut book was called a "must-read" by Publishers Weekly[21] and was described by Anthony Marra as "an absolutely brilliant collection, so of the moment formally and politically yet timeless in its pursuit of human contradiction."[22]
Bermudez was announced as Co-Editor of The Maine Review in January 2022, and currently serves as Editor.[23][24] As a writer, Bermudez's work has been noted to focus on "intersections of power, privilege, and place," with characters who subvert traditional ideas of literary protagonists.[25][26]
In 2022, Bermudez was one of the inaugural resident artists of the Nawat Fes Residency in Fez, Morocco.[27][28][29]
Bermudez co-wrote the film My Dead Friend Zoe, which premiered at South by Southwest in 2024, with director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes.
Awards and honors
| Year | Work | Accolade | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | My Dead Friend Zoe | South by Southwest Narrative Spotlight Award | Winner | [30] |
| 2023 | Stories No One Hopes Are About Them | Lambda Literary Award | Finalist | [31][32] |
| 2023 | "The Real India" | Pushcart Prize | Winner | [33] |
| 2023 | Self | Steinbeck Fellowship | Winner | [34] |
| 2023 | "Picking the Wound" | Best Small Fictions | Nominee | [35] |
| 2022 | Stories No One Hopes Are About Them | Iowa Short Fiction Award | Winner | [4] |
| 2022 | Stories No One Hopes Are About Them | The Story Prize | Nominee | [36] |
| 2021 | iCON | PAGE International Screenwriting Award | Winner | [1] |
| 2021 | "The Lady Will Pay for Everything" | Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize | Winner | [3] |
| 2021 | "Obscure Trivia of the Antarctic" | Pushcart Prize | Nominee | [37] |
| 2021 | "Octopus" | Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship | Finalist | [7] |
| 2020 | Self | SmokeLong Fellowship for Emerging Writers | Finalist | [38] |
| 2019 | Self | Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch | Selection | [20] |
| 2018 | Nightingale | Best 60-Minute Teleplay | Winner | [39] |
| 2018 | Nightingale | Emerging Screenwriters Award | Winner | [40] |
| 2017 | The Face of the Earth | Diverse Voices Award | Winner | [41] |
Bibliography
- Stories No One Hopes Are About Them (University of Iowa Press)[22][4]
- "The Real India" (Virginia Quarterly Review)[42]
- "Bottle Girl" (Electric Literature)[43]
- "All the Places You Will Never Be Again" (Chicago Quarterly Review)[44]
- "Misery & Company" (Creative Nonfiction)[18][45]
- "Rabbitfish" (SmokeLong Quarterly)[46][25]
- "Ori Dreams of a Tree" (City in a Wild Garden: Stories of the Nature of Cities)[47]
- "The Third Trip" (Coastal Shelf)[48]
- "Octopus" (Story)[49]
- "Conservancy" (Litro)[50]
- "The Voice as Heirloom" (Fiction International)[10]
- "Obscure Trivia of the Antarctic" (Boulevard)[12][51]
- "Mnemophobe" (Chicago Review)[52]
- "Rosa" (Every Day Fiction)[53]
- "Fall" (The Baltimore Review)[54][55]
- "Ní de Aqui, Ní de Alla" (Arachne Press)[56]
- "Casualty" (Columbia Journal)[57]
- "Water & Earth" (Bad Bride)[58]
- "Orphea" (Fearsome Critters)[59]
- "Insertion" (The Offing)[60]
- "Maslow's Hierarchy of Post-Pandemic Wish Fulfillment Fantasies" (McSweeney's)[2]
- "The Body Electric" (Gertrude Press)[61]
- "Walk-Off" (Hobart)[62]
- "On the Negligible Proximity of Money and Mouths" (Heirlock)[63]
- "Year of the Snake" (The Masters Review)[9]
- "Totenhaus" (Black Static)[64][65]
- "Eating the Leaves" (Lunch Ticket)[66][67]
- "Sabbatical" (Cheap Pop)[68]
- "Cain vs. Cain" (Iron Horse Literary Review)[69]
- "Disenchantment" (Spider Road Press)[70]
- "The Breakneck Boys" (Concīs)[71]