A short life of the author
Amy Hempel (b. 14 December 1951) was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in California. She moved to New York City and studied with Gordon Lish at Columbia University. She has taught at Bennington College, Princeton, and other institutions.
Life and Career
Reasons to Live (1985) — fifteen stories, the longest barely ten pages, most much shorter — was her debut. The collection announced a writer of extraordinary compression: Hempel’s stories omit what most writers consider essential (backstory, exposition, context) and present only the moments of maximum emotional intensity. “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” — about a woman visiting her dying friend in the hospital — is one of the most anthologised American stories of the late twentieth century.
At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom (1990), Tumble Home (1997), and The Dog of the Marriage (2005) were equally slim, equally powerful. The Collected Stories (2006, Scribner) — gathering all four collections — was a revelation: read together, the stories constitute a unified body of work about loss, grief, and the inadequacy of language to express either.
Sing to It (2019) — her first new collection in fourteen years — demonstrated that her powers were undiminished.
Major Works and Themes
Hempel’s fiction operates through omission. What she leaves out — the explanations, the transitions, the emotional signposting — is as important as what she includes. Her stories work like poems: every word is load-bearing, and the removal of any one would change the meaning of the whole. The reader must be an active participant, filling in the gaps that Hempel deliberately creates.
Her subjects are grief, illness, death, and the ways people cope (or fail to cope) with loss. Her characters are often women — though not exclusively — and they navigate emotional catastrophe with a dry wit that is Hempel’s version of courage.
Gordon Lish’s influence on her work is acknowledged and significant: Lish’s philosophy of “consecution” — that each sentence should generate the next through sound and rhythm rather than plot logic — is the engine of Hempel’s prose.
Critical Reception and Legacy
Hempel is a writer’s writer in the most literal sense: her admirers include Palahniuk, Rick Moody, Mary Robison, and dozens of other fiction writers who cite her as an influence. Her slender output — five story collections in thirty-five years — has kept her from the mass readership her quality deserves.
Key Works
- Reasons to Live (1985)
- At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom (1990)
- Tumble Home (1997)
- The Dog of the Marriage (2005)
- The Collected Stories (2006)
- Sing to It (2019)
Collecting Hempel
Reasons to Live (1985, Alfred A. Knopf) — the debut — brings $50–$200 for fine first editions. Hempel was virtually unknown at publication, making the print run modest.
The Collected Stories (2006, Scribner) brings $20–$50. Sing to It (2019, Scribner) brings $10–$25.
Hempel signs at literary events and university readings. Her low profile and small readership mean signed copies are less available than for more prominent writers.