Jerry Stahl

Jerry Stahl earned a cult following with his gritty and fearless memoir, Permanent Midnight, a best-selling junkie confessional that drew critical raves. His subsequent fiction, including Perv: A Love Story, Plainclothes Naked, I, Fatty, and a collection of stories Love Without, established him as a sometimes disturbing, sometimes hilarious, but always unsparing and utterly original voice. Thomas Mallon, writing in The New Yorker called him "a better than Burroughs virtuoso." James Ellroy dubbed him "America's hipster bard." And Entertainment Weekly praised his "brilliantly demented riffs." His latest novel is Pain Killers (William Morrow), which reveals a side of America's underbelly as no one but Stahl can. Also a gifted TV and film writer, Stahl makes an excellent speaker for universities, writing and film programs, libraries, literary arts and lectures series.

With Pain Killers Stahl's legion of avid fans can celebrate the author's return to form in this savagely funny, darkly satiric saga of America's underbelly and the two people - Manny and his husband-killing ex-wife, Tina - who must navigate the strange, violent shoals of state prison, neo-Nazis, human experiments, Christian call girls and, weirdest of all, true love that binds them for life. Stahl and the book have been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, Flavorwire, and L.A. Decider.

Stahl launched his publishing career with a Pushcart Prize and his fiction and non-fiction have appeared everywhere from The Village Voice to Hustler, from Esquire and Details to Playboy and the New York Times, among other places. He has also written extensively for television and film, including the highest rated episodes of CSI. Permanent Midnight was made into a film starring Ben Stiller and Maria Bello. I, Fatty, a faux-memoir of silent film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, has been optioned by Johnny Depp. Stahl is currently completing a movie about Ernest Hemingway for HBO and James Gandolfini. He is also adapting the HarperCollins book, Cooked, about Chef Jeff Henderson, for Sony & Will Smith, and working with Ben Stiller on a movie about Oscar Levant.

Stahl is a graduate of Columbia University. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and studied with Raymond Carver and Tobias Wolff. Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, Stahl lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Drug Addiction in America

Adventures in Hollywood: Writing for TV & Film

The Thrill of Writing

Fatty Arbuckle and Early Hollywood Comedy

An Evening with Jerry Stahl