Jedediah Berry

Berry was born in Randolph, Vermont, and spent his childhood in Catskill, New York. He attended Bard College, and earned a graduate degree from the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has worked as an editor at Small Beer Press.[1]

Berry’s first novel, The Manual of Detection, was published by The Penguin Press in 2009. It won the 2009 Hammett Prize[2] and the 2010 Crawford Award.[3] Set in an unnamed city, the novel follows file clerk Charles Unwin as he attempts to solve a mystery involving a missing detective and a criminal mastermind operating through people’s dreams. Critics have noted that The Manual of Detection combines elements from several genres of fiction, including mystery and fantasy.[4] Writing for The Guardian, Michael Moorcock situated the book within the tradition of steampunk fiction.[5] The New Yorker called it “the kind of mannered fantasy that might result if Wes Anderson were to adapt Kafka.”[6] A reviewer for The Observer compared it to The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, and described it as “imaginative, fantastical, sometimes inexplicable, labyrinthine and ingenious.”[7] An abridged version of the novel, read by Toby Jones, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in January 2013.[8]

Berry’s short stories have appeared in Conjunctions, Chicago Review, Ninth Letter, and other magazines. He has taught at the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and he currently teaches at Bard College.[9]

• Jedediah Berry's Website
• Interview at Bookslut