Bruce Benderson is most known for his seventh book, a memoir called The Romanian: Story of an Obsession (Tarcher/Penguin, 2006), which won France’s literary award, the Prix de Flore, in translation. He is also the author of the novel User (Dutton, 1994) and the story collection Pretending to Say No (Plume, 1990). His most recent English-language novel is Pacific Agony, published by Semiotext(e) (2009). A collection of his essays from the last ten years, Sex and Isolation, was published by University of Wisconsin Press in 2008. Benderson is bilingual, writes in both English and French, and all eight of his books have been republished in translation by Editions Payot & Rivages in France.
As a journalist, Benderson has written in English or French for The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, nest, French Vogue, Vogue Hommes, Beaux Arts Magazine, L’Humanité, Madame Figaro, Blackbook, and Libération, among others. For five years, he was the author of a monthly column for the French gay magazine Têtu.
Benderson is a literary translator from the French. In the last three years, his many published translations have included works by Grégoire Bouiller for Houghton-Miflin, Martin Page for Penguin, Tony Duvert for Semiotext(e), David Foenkinos for Harper, Philippe Djian for Simon & Schuster and Beatrix Preciado for The Feminist Press.
In 2007, Benderson published a personal encyclopedia of the American counterculture for a French audience, entitled Concentré de Counterculture (Scali). Four years ago, Benderson’s first book written directly in French, Transhumain, about the future interfacing of technology and biology, was published by Payot. A satirical essay, Against Marriage (Semiotexte, 2014), was published to become part of an installation at the Whitney Biennale.
Benderson has also worked closely with three Hollywood personalities: Leslie Caron, for her 2010 memoir Thank Heaven; Hill Harper, for his 2013 book Letters to an Incarcerated Brother; and Raquel Welch, for her book Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage. In 2014 he wrote the subtitles for the French film Race d’ep, to be released on DVD by Artists Space.
He has taught creative writing, urban culture and French literature during three separate terms at Deep Springs College in Dyer, Nevada. He has also lectured or taught workshops at Brown University, Evergreen College, and Sarah Lawrence.
