Jill Ciment

Jill Ciment
Born	(1955-05-20) May 20, 1955 Montreal, Canada
Occupation	Memoirist, novelist, and professor
Nationality	American

Jill Ciment (born May 20, 1955) is an American writer.

Biography

Ciment was born in Montreal, Canada. She went to study art at the California Institute of Arts, under John Baldessari. She earned her BFA from CalArts in 1975. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Irvine in 1981. She is the author of The Tattoo Artist (2005, Pantheon). She is a professor of English at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Her novel Heroic Measures was released in spring 2009 (Pantheon). This book was one of titles chosen by Oprah Winfrey's Book Club for 2009 summer reading. This book was also one of the top five finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for 2010. 5 Flights Up, a film adaptation of Heroic Measures, starring Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton, will be in theaters May 8, 2015. She is married to artist Arnold Mesches.

Grants and literary awards

• Two New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellowship
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.
• Guggenheim Foundation grant.
• The Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize
• NEA Japan Fellowship Prize.

Books by Ciment

• Act of God, Pantheon, 2015 (novel)
• Heroic Measures, Pantheon, 2009 (novel)
• The Tattoo Artist, Pantheon, 2005 (novel)
• Teeth of the Dog, Crown, 1998 (novel)
• Half a Life, Crown, 1996 (autobiography)
• The Law of Falling Bodies, Poseidon, 1993 (novel)
• Small Claims, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1986 (story collection)