Dear Committee Members: A Novel (Book #1)

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR & Boston Globe

Finally a novel that puts the “pissed” back into “epistolary.”

Jason Fitger is a beleaguered professor of creative writing & literature at Payne University, a small & not very distinguished liberal arts college in the midwest. His department is facing draconian cuts & squalid quarters, while one floor above them the Economics Department is getting lavishly remodeled offices. His once-promising writing career is in the doldrums, as is his romantic life, in part as the result of his unwise use of his private affairs for his novels. His star (he thinks) student can’t catch a break with his brilliant (he thinks) work Accountant in a Bordello, based on Melville’s Bartleby.

In short, his life is a tale of woe, & the vehicle this droll & inventive novel uses to tell that tale is a series of hilarious letters of recommendation that Fitger is endlessly called upon by his students & colleagues to produce, each one of which is a small masterpiece of high dudgeon, low spirits, & passive-aggressive strategies. We recommend Dear Committee Members to you in the strongest possible terms. 

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Julie Schumacher grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, & graduated from Oberlin College & Cornell University. Her first novel, The Body Is Water, was published by Soho Press in 1995 & was an ALA Notable Book of the Year & a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award & the Minnesota Book Award. Her other books include the novel Dear Committee Members, a short story collection, An Explanation for Chaos, & five books for younger readers. She lives in St. Paul & is a faculty member in the Creative Writing Program & the Department of English at the University of Minnesota.