Jonathan Rosen

Jonathan Rosen is an American author and editor.

Education
Rosen graduated from Yale and began graduate studies working towards a PhD in English at the University of California, Berkeley. He dropped out of graduate school to become a writer.

Career
Rosen describes his "first real job" as being hired by Seth Lipsky in 1990 to create an art section for The Jewish Daily Forward. Rosen describes Lipsky as an important influence. He held the job for 10 years. As of 2007 he was editorial director of the Nextbook.

Rosen's Joy Comes in the Morning (2004) features the protagonist, Rabbi Deborah Green, who struggles with the perceptions of women rabbis. This work's inclusion of a woman rabbi is viewed as a significant development in American Jewish writings featuring women rabbis.

In April 2023, Rosen published The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions, a memoir about his friendship with Michael Laudor, a Yale Law School graduate with schizophrenia who killed his fiancée in 1998 during a psychotic episode. The book was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize and has received high critical acclaim.

Personal Life
Rosen is Jewish and keeps kosher. He describes having dyslexia. He is also a bird-watcher.

Media

 * A talk with Jonathan Rosen
 * Book Examines Connection Between Humans, Birds (National Public Radio)