Steven Lee Beeber is a “born, bred, and fled” Southerner from Atlanta, GA, having moved to New England in the early ’80s. A freelance writer of both fiction and nonfiction, his work has appeared in numerous national and international publications including The Paris Review, Fiction, MOJO (UK), Spin, Maxim, Details, Jewcy, Conduit and Playboy.

Beeber’s study of the Jewish origins of punk rock, The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk (Chicago Review Press, 2006) was recently released in paperback in the US and has just been translated and released to widespread acclaim in Germany. Beeber is also the editor of the insomnia anthology, AWAKE! A Reader for the Sleepless (Soft Skull Press, 2007) and Associate Editor of Conduit, “the only magazine that risks annihilation.”

In addition to earning his MFA in Fiction from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an honors certificate from the Advanced Writing Workshop at Harvard University, Beeber has worked as a dishwasher, flower-seller, candle-seller, bra-seller, shoe-seller, bartender and press agent. He also has an extensive background in journalism, having been a stringer for Newsweek, a reporter for The Morning Union (Springfield, MA) and the features editor of the largest alternative weekly in the Southeast. In the last of these positions, he became well-known for his column “Beeber’s Town” as well as his many magazine-length features in the participatory style of George Plimpton.

Beeber is a professor at the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College and currently has a screenplay (“Joel’s Bar Mitzvah”) under development in Hollywood. While awaiting its transformation to film, he is feeding his eternal regret at never having been a rock star by repeatedly listening to tapes he’s made with various garage bands, among them the Atlanta-based, white-punk-gospels known as The Chowder Shouters (later to morph into the nationally recognized critic’s fave The Jody Grind – though without Beeber).