Aaron Hamburger was awarded the Rome Prize by the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his story collection THE VIEW FROM STALIN’S HEAD. His novel FAITH FOR BEGINNERS was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. His novel NIRVANA IS HERE is the winner of a Bronze Medal in the 2019 Foreword Indies Awards. His latest novel, HOTEL CUBA, won the 2024 Bridge Book Award in American Fiction. It was featured on NPR and named a best book of 2023 by Hadassah Magazine. He is the winner of the 2023 Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize from Lambda Literary. His stories, essays, creative non-fiction, and more have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Poets & Writers, Tin House, Subtropics, O, the Oprah Magazine, Details, Crazyhorse, Boulevard, and many others.
Recent Publications
- “Trying to Solve a Family Mystery through Fiction”
essay about the writing of the novel Hotel Cuba for Literary Hub. - “The Cuban Connection”
conversation with Elizabeth Graver about our historical novels inspired by true stories of our grandmothers in Tablet Magazine. - “I Know Where I’m Going”
a short story about a Jewish-American victim of gun violence traveling in Morocco, in Image. - “Simple Past, Present Perfect”
a short story about New York City in the aftermath of 9/11, in The Massachusetts Review. - “Lessons I Learned in Writing My #Metoo Story”
essay about writing a #metoo story as both fiction and creative non-fiction, in Submittable. - “Yes, Kurt Cobain was a Grunge Icon. He was also a Gay Rights Hero.”
Creative non-fiction piece about listening to Kurt Cobain and coming out in the 90s, in The Washington Post. - “Beauty Mark”
An ode to the beauty of the comma in O, the Oprah Magazine. - “Sweetness Mattered”
Memoir essay about a unique wooing of a high school crush, in Tin House. - “Guiltless Pleasures” (PDF)
Short story about the food entertainment business and the search for meaning, in Crazyhorse.
News
- Aaron Hamburger’s next novel The Shiva Bandit has been acquired by HarperCollins, intended for a 2026 release. After her husband disappears fighting in World War II and the Nazis invade […]
- Hotel Cuba has won the Bridge Book Award in American Fiction!
- Available in print only, I write about what I learned about it the hard way about publishing a book in “Dwell in Gratitude” for Poets & Writers.
“…laugh-out-loud funny.”
“…the stuff of a Czech fairy tale.”
“…brilliant.”
“Hamburger engages the reader with wonderfully flawed characters and through the history, legend, and propaganda of modern Jewish life.”
“A knockout of a novel… The author’s shrewd and satirical look at Judaism, and American and Israeli style, is in the great tradition of Philip Roth.“
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